Scatterblind
by Bride of Frankenstein Madame X
Summary: What if the Joker was the vampire that originally changed Alice, and he is now on his way to Forks to get her back? Alice knowing what he's capable of decides to leave and join the Volturi. Warning, violence, sex, dark content. Mostly an Aro/Alice story, but there will be some Joker/Jane
1. Scatterblind

**Alright, I had to take my two favorite villains and put them together, the Joker and the Aro Volturi. I think the Joker is a lot nastier and I think he would make a wicked vampire. For story purposes, I have made Jane a lot older than in the book. She's about 17. **

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Chapter 1

The vampire had numerous transgressions. In fact, the Volturi had been after him for years. He liked to leave bloodless bodies on subways, would set up family holiday dinners with corpses and once started a traveling vampire circus with newborns that would blow through town and then dine on the residents. He almost burned the city of Gotham to the ground. He was considered a wendigo vampire, because he sometimes ate the victim's organs.

Consequently, it was a quite a shock to the Volturi when the Joker waltzed right into Volterra Castle handing himself over for judgment. True to his name, he thought it was gloriously funny.

"Say the word," he kept taunting Jane, as if seducing her to his bed, "Say it, 'Paaaaiiiin,' I'm ready. Drop me on the floor. Do it. Do it." He licked his lips.

Jane bristled. She couldn't torture him. At least not while he was complying with their commands. But he was practically hissing in her ear, black kohl smeared around his eyes. He smelled like clown white and gasoline, and he wore a sharp looking, lime green waistcoat with a dark purple coat that went down to his knees. His eyes were black, meaning he hadn't eaten in weeks.

Jane had never seen a vampire like him. He was so blatant and without fear. Even with his dirty green hair and his Glasgow grin, he still turned her on. She'd love to fuck him.

Aro and Caius were somewhat stunned when she and Felix brought him into the chamber, their eyes narrowing.

"This certainly seems odd," Aro said, studying the Joker. "You show up now to turn yourself in?"

"I'm at your service, _Master_," the Joker teased, pulling out the words slowly, twirling his hand offering it to him to read.

Aro didn't smile and hesitated before touching him. But Jane knew, his curiosity would get the better of him. How could it not? Even she wanted to know what this demented vampire was thinking.

The minute Aro touched the Joker's hand, he jerked back, his red eyes becoming glassy and his pupils dilated, before rolling back into his head, leaving only the yellowish whites. His hands were out in front of him like he couldn't see, then he mumbled some words in an ancient language and fell to his knees.

Renita threw herself at the Joker, knocking him off his feet, but the minute she made contact, her eyes rolled back in her head like Aro's and she slammed into the wall.

"Pain," Jane hissed, her fingers balled into fists.

But the Joker just laughed, his back twisted in agony. Dragging himself to his feet, he lunged at Jane, sweeping her up in his arms, biting her neck. Blood and venom dripped down her neck.

The contact made Jane's vision blur like a cyclone in front of her. Voices from the past spoke to her from every direction. Memories: Like Demetri dumping her into his bed on New Year's Eve, the scent of whisky-soaked blood on his lips, his icy hands pulling down her panties. Her hair on fire, tied to the stake, smoke filling her throat and her nostrils. Her body sinking like a rock in the water when the ship Godspell sunk off the Florida Keys, rain pelting down. And Aro, sweet Aro, changing her to a vampire, telling her she was his beloved daughter, kissing her hands. She loved him_, and Alec._

But in the middle of it all was her dark fantasy of the Joker, reaching up between her skirts, pressing his hand between her legs. She screamed out the word, "Pain," but it came out like a sigh.

"Just keep doing that, Jane," the Joker whispered in her ear, "torture me. I love it."

Jane couldn't answer him. She couldn't remember how to talk. She knew she was being carried. She could feel the roughness in his hands.

"You think you can just come in here and steal our Jane?" Caius bellowed.

"Yes."

Jane could sense Alec's mist, but it didn't stop her abductor.

"Back off Alec," the Joker taunted, "or I'll twist your sister's head off."

The room grew silent. Jane felt herself being jostled on the stairs, then a cold wind blew her hair around. They were now in the streets, the sound of human hearts and their rich blood ruining through their veins making her throat hurt. She heard elevator doors close and then she was dumped on a lumpy mattress. She tried to sit up, but her head was so woozy, she had to lay back down. The place smelled foul, like cat piss and marijuana. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't get the visions to stop.

The Joker fingers lightly brushed her cheek, which made her head spin even more. "Guess what, Jane. You belong to me now. What do you think of that?"

Somehow she didn't mind.

''''''''''

Alice Cullen nearly vomited when the vision hit her. Grabbing the wall to keep from falling, she sat down on the top step.

Jasper was by her side in seconds, his arms around her. "What did you see?"

"I don't know," Alice said, her hands shaking.

It didn't make sense._ Fire and smoke, the smell of gasoline. Rosalie's severed head was in the driveway, her eyes blinking, her mouth still trying to speak. Carlisle was on the ground mumbling, his eyes white. And Jasper was dead, his body on fire. _

"_I've come to take you back," a ghost from her past said._

Alice cried out, her fingernails digging into the palms of her hands.

Jasper moved her to the sofa to sit down and she looked around the room. Carlisle, Edward, Rosalie, Bella, they were all staring at her, waiting for her to talk.

Alice didn't know where to begin. "He's somebody from my past. That I know. I think he's the vampire that made me." She bit her lip. "I thought he was dead, but he's not."

Jasper took her hand, clasping it warmly. "What do you remember about him?"

"That's the whole thing. I think my memory is playing tricks on me. He wasn't an employee at the hospital like I thought. He was one of the patients. He used to crawl out through the windows and climb along the wall."

Alice remembered him coming to her room, lying next to her in her bed, shredding the restraints that held her down. But she didn't want to tell Jasper that.

"What does he want?"

"He wants me back. It's that simple. He thinks I belong to him, because he made me."

"You don't need to worry, Alice," Edward told her. "We're all here for you."

"Yeah, I think we can protect you from one vampire," Emmitt laughed. "Especially with Bella's shield."

"No, you don't understand." Alice argued. "He's not a normal vampire. He has a hideous gift."

"What does he look like?" Jasper asked.

"Oh you'll know him when you see him. He has a Glasgow grin."

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The office building was abandoned. Old desks were scattered in the halls and with big bulky monitors, and gray dirty carpet.

Jane was too dizzy to be disgusted.

She had never met the great vampire Timur before, but she had heard of him through Aro. The ancient Mongol seemed to have little patience for the Joker's wendigo habits, scowling and pacing the dusty cafeteria, while the Joker ate a dead girl's ovary, the body sprawled out naked on one of the tables.

"The glands are the best," the Joker told Jane, trying to her feed one, blood dripping off his narrow fingers.

Jane was repulsed, holding up her hand, turning her head away. "Stop it. It'll make me sick."

"It won't." he whispered, leaning closer. "I'm telling you, once you start, you'll never go back. _It gives you power_." He dabbed some blood on her bottom lip and then licked it off.

Jane smiled. _He was such a tease._

"Am I interrupting something? Are you two finished?" Timur snapped, taking a menacing step toward them.

Timur wasn't tall, had a slight limp, and looked quite elegant with his Armani suit, his long, black hair tied back with a clip. Jane could still see the remnants though of the ruthless, nomadic warrior that he once was. His right hand was missing two fingers and his red eyes stared at her with disdain. "I told you to kidnap Aro, not Aro's monster child creation."

"I'm not a child," Jane grumbled. _"_I'm 1191 years old_." _

"And you say that with such childish impertinence?" Timur chided, his voice and manner making it clear he wanted her to stop talking.

Jane wanted to show him what true pain really was, but Timur seemed to have a shield that made him impossible to touch.

The Joker shrugged and threw up his hands. "Why would I take Aro, when I can have Jane? She's like my perfect girl."

Timur stiffened. "Because I asked you to retrieve Aro. You are worthless to me, if you do not follow my orders."

"Don't worry, I'll go back and get Aro. It's going to take him weeks to clear his head. I scrambled his brain pretty good."

"But when he does clear his head, he will know our plans," Timur said. "He will have read your mind."

The Joker gave a loud hoot. "I'm sure he enjoyed that."

"Enough!" Timur snarled. "I want Aro and your protégé seer, Alice Cullen, in my Northern stronghold in two weeks, or I will assume you have become a traitor. And you know what happens to traitors." With that, Timur took the hand of his beautiful mind-reader wife, Saray, and exited the building, his five closest minions following behind.

After he left, the Joker laughed, "I don't know what makes him think I was ever loyal to begin with." He said, using his razor sharp fingernail to gouge out the dead girl's other ovary, popping it in his mouth.

"I won't let you hurt Aro," Jane said, her eyes narrowing.

"Actually, you don't have much say in this." he said, leaning forward to kiss her.

The minute his lips touched hers, her brain scattered, the world spinning in front of her. She was starting to like it, but it annoyed her that he kept doing it. She wanted to pay him in kind. "Pain," she whispered, making him howl out loud, both of them giggling.

"""""""

Alice snuck out the backdoor, so nobody would see her, putting on her backpack. Outside the air was crisp and the moon was full above the pine trees. There was snow on the ground.

After much hard debating, she had decided she couldn't bring this catastrophe down upon her family. She had to get away. The more she remembered about the vampire who turned her, the scarier he became. Little bits and pieces ran through her mind, like how he used to talk about how she was a freak, just like him, cast out by a moral society that truly didn't have any morals. He spoke with a hard, brittle, nasty sense of humor, but there was an underlining sadness inside.

"They fried you again last night with the electroshock therapy," he told her one time in the break room. "Do you remember your name?"

At the time she didn't, but she asked him his. What did he call himself? It was so hard to remember, but then it came to her. "My name is Gwynplaine," he said. "And your name is Alice."

"Such an odd name."

"You think so," He laughed, shuffling the cards with the ease of a swindler, pulling out the Joker card. "Wanna play canasta?"

She knew even than that he was dangerous. All his enemies seemed to disappear. The most glaring one being Dr. Peel.

"Don't worry, beautiful, he won't be drilling any more holes into your skull anytime soon."

If she thought he cared about her, she realized now that wasn't true. He left her for James. Here she thought he had been killed, but he left her to fend for herself. Now he wanted her back, even if he had to slaughter her family to do it.

_Go to hell, Gwynplaine._

She decided the best place to hide was Volterra. She knew Aro would take her in. He had wanted her to be a member of his guard for years. She'd rather live far away then ever see Jasper get killed. Of course, Jasper would never let her leave if he knew what she was planning, so she didn't even leave a note, figuring she would write him later.

Three hours later at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport she bought a ticket to Pisa Italy.

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**I admit that I get the feeling my story is so obscure no one will read it, but if you do, I would love to hear what you think. :D**

**I know I make errors. I have no beta, but I need one. *sniff***

**Oh yes, and Gwynplaine is the same character from Victor Hugo's _The Man Who Laughs_. Since Gwynplaine is the inspiration for the Joker, I thought it was a good fit. Of course he's become the dangerous Joker. Don't worry, you don't have to be familiar with The Man Who Laughs to read this story, but I figured, hey if you're going to do crossover, you might as well go all the way. :D**


	2. The Contract

**Chapter 2**

Aro just wanted everything to stop spinning

How many days was it now? He had lost track. He had so much crap floating around in his mind. He tried to sort it. _Make a house, brick by brick, and then place each memory into a separate room and close the door._ There were so many though, not all of them his, and he was running out of rooms.

He suspected he was in the north sunroom, but it was hard to tell. He could hear wind chimes, the beating heart of a servant girl, and that weird little melody Sulpicia liked to play over and over on the piano. There were scatterings of light, probably from the stained glass dragonflies that hung in the windows, and the smell of earth from all the plants. Blowing curtains caught his eye. But other than that, he was blind.

Obviously, they had locked him away with his mad wife, which somewhat amused him. Caius must have given up on him.

"Picia," Aro whispered, holding out his hand. Sometimes she came to him, sometimes she didn't. When he heard the piano stop, he lifted his head in hope, opening his palm.

Icy fingers touched his skin and he smiled, her erratic thoughts flooding his consciousness.

_We're not soulless, Aro, we're damned. Devil's spawn. Hell's playthings. We must burn ourselves in the fire and free ourselves from this eternal purgatory. It's imperative we do it now, now, now!_

"Not today, dearheart," Aro soothed, squeezing her hand. "I promise you, someday I will mercifully end your existence, but not now. I must find my way to your sunroom. Can you help me? I can't see."

To his surprise, Sulpicia actually seemed to be concerned about him, kissing his hands, directing him to the chalky pastels scattered about the floor. She helped him write his name, his real name, Αρτεμιδωρος Ηρακλειδης.

Aro said it aloud. "Artemidoros Herakleides." Nobody called him that now. It meant gift of Artemis. Son of Herakles "I'm definitely no gift, am I, Picia?" he chuckled, kissing her hand.

Suddenly she embraced him, her wavy hair tickling his cheek.

He stiffened, and with a burst of hope he pulled her close, caressing the smooth curve of her spine under her flimsy chemise. How painful her touch seemed now. So often she ignored him, lost in her own world of biblical punishment. He should never have let those priests near her.

"Cara mia," he said, hoping she might give more, but then she went motionless, her hands slipping to her sides. An empty husk.

A wave of grief settled in his throat, but he reprimanded himself. _Why weep? You lost her years ago._ Yet somehow his sorrow made it easier to focus. He saw the silhouette of her thick black hair and her vacant red eyes. He was finally back in the sunroom.

A mousy, young, human girl saw him and jumped. "Master Aro."

"Fetch Caius, will you, Celine?"

The girl dropped her clipboard and raced down the hall.

Caius was by his side in seconds, dressed in full robes, grabbing a chair. "It took you long enough," he said, motioning for Aro to take the chair next to him, but Aro ignored him.

"How many days have I been out?"

"Eight."

Aro casually read the paragraph Sulpicia had written in purple on a big sheet of paper next to his name. "_And if your right hand offend you, __**cut**__ it __**off**__, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body ... _Such a lovely passage, don't you think. She always focuses on the dark side of Christianity."

"I need your full attention, brother."

"You have it," Aro said without looking up at him. "Let me guess, you let that monster abscond with my sweet Jane."

"I don't know how he got through Alec's mist."

"He goes on faith. If you can't see, hear, or touch, you have to go by memory. It's rather like what I went through myself." Standing up, he brushed the chalk off his fingers. He was surprised to find himself dressed in only a T-shirt and sweats, but then again, he obviously was out of his mind for the last few days. "We must get Jane back. Originally, he came for me, but he couldn't resist her. He scattered my brain before I even got the chance to warn you."

"We're trying to get her back," Caius said defensively, standing up as well. "But we don't know where he's headed. It's not that Demetri is unable to track them. He says the tenor of their thoughts, even Jane's, are very erratic and he keeps changing his mind all the time. Not to mention, he's always on the move and gone by the time they get there."

"That may change. I know who he wants. The Cullen's little seer, Alice."

Caius eyebrows lifted. "Guess who showed up two days ago wanting to join the Volturi."

Aro laughed and clapped his hands. "That's marvelous. She knows the monster's after her and wants our protection. Can't say as I blame her. She was his singer, you know. He can't forget that. If he had the chance, he'd drink her blood all over again. We shall accept her offer to serve us."

"She was pretty hesitant. So I locked her in the tower."

"Oh my, I'm sure she enjoyed that." Aro chuckled. "I will go woo her, and see if I can have a contract drawn up for her." He turned to leave.

Caius grabbed his shoulder. "I want to say, I'm much relieved to see you back. I would be in a bad way if something were to happen to you."

"We've been friends a long time, brother. You've always been loyal to me. I will never forget that."

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Alice was livid when Felix and Santiago finally brought her down to see Aro. How dare Caius lock her in the tower for two days! How dare they manhandle her! She kept thinking she had made a grave mistake, yet the memory of her vision was so clear. Had she overreacted? When it came to Jasper, she didn't even like to play around. She wanted him safe.

Aro was reading at his desk, when she came in, immediately standing up to greet her, his palm outstretched. Dressed all in black with his long, dark hair pulled back in a clip, he looked surprisingly exhausted. "My dear, dear Alice, I'm so very glad to see you here."

"I'm sure you are. Is this why you had me locked up."

"I'm terribly sorry about that. I think Caius was just worried that you might sneak off in the middle of the night. He knows how delighted I am to have you join us." Warmly he clasped her hand, and for a second, his eyes glazed over as he read her mind. "You don't remember much about the Joker, do you?"

Alice sighed. "No, not really. I think I've blocked it out. Can you see more than I remember?"

"Yes and no," Aro admitted, offering her to take a seat across from him, sitting down himself. "I do have an advantage over you. I've seen his memories."

The blood rushed to Alice's head. "You've read _his_ mind?" she stammered.

"Yes, it's very disturbing." Aro leaned forward and studied her expression. "You know he wants you."

"I've had visions of him coming to get me. But why he wants me after all these years is beyond me?"

"He wants you, because Timur want's you."

"Timur?"

"I'm surprised Carlisle never spoke of him. Timur is a particularly vicious and blood-thirsty vampire with a powerful coven. Back in the late 1300s they began acquiring vast amounts of territory in Asia and India. They ate without discretion, left giant pyramids of human skulls lying about, and even had the audacity to play polo with severed heads. The stench of human decay from Samarkand could be smelt for miles. It was all very blatant and very distressing."

"Are you talking about Tamerlane? The one Edgar Allen Poe wrote a poem about?"

"Yes, but the poem is bogus. Timur never loved anybody."

"What does he want with me?"

Aro lifted his hands. "The same thing I want. Your gift of prophecy. You see, Timur and I have very different ideas about how the vampire world should be run. Timur believes humans are a menace and should be slaughtered like cattle. He's thinks I've let them get out of hand, polluting our world, when they should be bred for dining purposes only."

"With all the caravans of people that you have delivered to the Volturi _for dining purposes only_, I'm surprised you don't agree."

Aro's eyes narrowed. "I would never try to make humans mindless cattle, simply because they aren't mindless. If they know they are being brought in for slaughter, they will fight. It doesn't take a genius either to figure out that fire can hurt us, and when they do figure it out, they'll just start setting everything on fire. They did it before, back during the dark ages. Now it would be even worse."

"So let me ask, how did you stop Timur the first time?"

"Let's just say, it took a great deal of double-cross and maneuvering, and I wouldn't be able to do it again. Timur wants Genghis Khan's empire back, and he wants to run it _his way_. I've spent centuries trying to round up the last remnants of his coven and killing them off, but due to treaties and certain disputes with other covens, I haven't been able to complete my task. Now the Joker just waltzes in here and stole my sweet, Jane."

Alice almost gagged hearing the words, "sweet" and "Jane" together, but she let it go. "So the Joker is working for Timur?"

"Yes, and we need to find him. So that's where you come in." Aro opened the top desk drawer, pulling out a newly printed contract on cream colored paper. "We need to get you signed up to join the Volturi Guard." He handed her a gold pen that was etched with the letter 'V'.

Alice stared at the document in horror. "Now wait a second, there are a lot of things we need to discuss before I sign my life away."

"By all means, voice your concerns?"

Alice bit her lip. She was having trouble concentrating, staring down at the contract, trying to read over the legal babble. "You have a dress code?"

"Of course."

"But red and black, all the time...forever?"

"Let me guess, you'd like to wear something sunny, like yellow."

"Yes I would."

"But that isn't Volturi. Wearing yellow would be like saying, I'm not _really_ part of the guard. I was coerced." Aro's gaze went hard. "And you're not being coerced. At least not by me. You will not stand apart from us wearing yellow and turn your nose. You will be one of us in every way."

"Fine, I'll wear the dumb uniform," she grumbled. "But what about this. It says I only get two weeks of vacation a year and I'm on call every day."

"I need to be able to count on you at moment's notice. The Volturi must be your number one concern. Time off is superfluous."

"You know you're not making this job sound very promising?."

"It's not a job. It's a way of life."

"I'm starting to see that." She flipped to page two. "Wait a second, I'm not allowed to be married or romantically involved with anyone outside the Volturi."

"No, it's too great a risk. Our enemies like to pray on lonely vampires. This is what they do. You will be approached by innocent looking vampires with oodles of sex appeal, who will want to become intimate with you for information. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book and it is still amazingly effective."

"But I'm already married."

"We will send a letter of correspondence to Jasper Hale. If he does not agree to join the guard, your marriage will become null and void."

"That's outrageous!" Alice clenched her fists. "All I want to do is save Jasper's life, not divorce him."

Aro's brows furrowed. "If Hale is devoted to you, like you think he is, he will join us. I recommend you write him as well."

Alice shook her head. _This was insane._ _Jasper would never join the Volturi. He was too independent._ But maybe that was a good thing. This unresolved business between her and Gwynplaine wasn't going to go away for a long time. Deep down, she always knew that her and Jasper weren't each other's true mates, no matter how much they tried to lie to each other.

Becoming more and more depressed, she turned to the last page and her jaw dropped. "A hundred years! Are you kidding me? You want me to join for a whole century?"

"Of course. All contracts are this long. Anything less is nothing at all. You must give at least one lifetime."

"I'm not joining the Volturi for no God damn hundred years, Aro. Hell, I thought six months was pushing it."

"Six months?" Aro leaned back in his chair, his lips pursed. "Really, that's all you're prepared to serve. That's an insult. You come to us for protection and assistance, and all you're prepared to give is just a portion of days?" He stood up and gestured for the door. "Please leave. Obviously you're wasting both our time."

Alice was stunned. Never in a million years did she expect Aro to throw her out. She figured he would just take whatever she offered. "You ask too much," she said softly.

Aro shook his head. "You must serve at least one lifetime, otherwise you're not Volturi. I wasn't lying when I said it was a way of life."

"But I-"

Aro held up his hand. "My dear, let's take a walk." Coming around to the other side of the desk, he helped her to her feet and then led her out through two veranda doors to a garden, covered in leaves. "Let me ask you. You are a hundred years old. What have you done with those hundred years?"

"You should already know this. You've read my mind."

"There's no way I could absorb a hundred years of memories. For one thing, it's painfully boring and tedious. The other is its way too much. I'm not an empty vessel. Most of the time I just skim stuff, and look for what I want to see. So please, tell me about your life."

"Okay, first I was turned into a vampire."

"Of course."

"And then I met the Cullens."

"That's obvious."

"I fell in love and got married."

"I already know this. You don't need to tell me about the basics. What I want to know is, what meaningful things have you done with your life."

Alice shook her head, her eyes narrowing. "I get the feeling, Aro, that your idea of _meaningful_, and my idea, are completely different. I have spent my life having meaningful relationships and surrounding myself with people I love."

Aro laughed. "And you're rather smug about it too, aren't you? As if you think _I'm_ lacking for love and friendship. But I'll tell you, finding love is a necessity. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, first you search for food, then for shelter, and then you want love. It's a basic need, and if you don't have that you'll never move on. What I'm asking for is, what have you done beyond that?"

"Well, I helped stop you from slaughtering my niece."

"Yes that's a good one." Aro smiled. "I'm glad you did that. But I get the feeling you've done little else. When I look in your memory, I see endless shopping excursions, games of chess, listening to Edward play piano and you've attended high school over and over again. In fact you've done this for almost seventy years."

"I do that so I'll blend in."

"Yes, but seventy years. If I had to attend high school more than once, I'd probably take the pointy end of my pocket compass and drive it into my eyeball. I can't imagine anything more boring, but you Cullens seem quite content to do little."

"That's because we're happy."

"But happiness is an emotion, it's not an achievement. I seriously think drinking animal blood produces some kind of lethargy. I've never met a bigger group of talented vampires who do absolutely nothing. When I first read Edward's mind, the first thing that stood out for me was that he had been working on the same piano piece for fifty years. _Fifty years_. You know what I've done in the last fifty years?"

"This is ridiculous. If you think I'm going to start drinking human blood-"

Aro shook his head. "I don't care about your poor diet. If you want to live on squirrel blood that's your business. But I do believe it slows you down."

Alice gritted her teeth. "It doesn't slow you down. I haven't just gone to high school these past years. I also went to college and I studied fashion and international business."

"Have you created your own fashion line? Have you started a business?"

"No, but I'm working on it. It's not like there is any rush."

"_Alice_, there should always be a rush. That's what keeps us alive. Believe me, I know. I'm over three thousand years old. All you've been doing is wasting time. You waste another few hundred years, you'll start to go mad."

"Loving someone, gives your life meaning. You don't understand."

"You're wrong, I do understand. I just don't think it's enough. Let me tell you. If you sign this contract and join the Volturi, I promise you, I will never waste your time. The next hundred years will be nothing like the last. The work we do is important. It's also more interesting than going to high school and listening to Edward play piano. Think about it."

"Aren't you wasting your wife's time, locking her away?"

Aro flinched, a shadow of sadness crossing his face.

Immediately Alice regretted her words. "I'm sorry."

"Maybe because of her," he said grimly. "I know how important it is to stay active."

Alice rubbed her fingers over her temples. Her hands ached from all the clenching. To her surprise, Aro's proposition actually intrigued her. He was right. She had been bored for a very long time, but she always tried to justify it away by saying she was happy. That she loved Jasper. But now Aro was using her secret discontent to lure her in. He was so manipulative. "What if I absolutely cannot stand it?"

"We can always talk about renegotiation. But I'll warn you. I've wanted your power for a long time. You'll have to present a good case for me to let you out of your contract early."

"Can I have a few days to think about it?"

"No, we have to catch a plane. I want to go to Gotham. The Joker has a place down in the train tunnels. I want to go there and see what we can find. He has my Jane." The last words were clipped as if underneath Aro's calm demeanor was a vampire enraged.

His passion to save a guard member moved and excited her. Would he ever feel that way about her? And what about the Joker. Wasn't she dying of curiosity to see what had become of him? She had never met anyone quite like Gwynplaine. With trembling fingers, she lifted the pen that she was still holding in her hand.

Aro saw it and ran back to get the contract in a blink of an eye, before walking her over to a patio table.

"Is Chelsea making me do this?" she asked.

"I doubt it. She has little influence on the strong-willed."

"Then why am I signing my life away?" Her signature looked blotched and squiggly.

"Because you want Gwynplaine as much as I do," Aro teased, picking up the contract, folding it neatly. "I'll have Celine find you a room and take you to pick out your uniform. There will be a list of rules and regulations in the top drawer. Please read it, before you get on the plane."

Alice nodded.

"You don't know how happy you've made me. I am honored by your service." Placing both hands on her shoulders, he kissed her forehead like a child. "But please remember, I'm your master now. I won't accept insubordination." With a bow, he disappeared out the door.

Alice was a little stunned, watching him go. She didn't know why, but Aro always seemed to be a little bit faster than most vampires. Was this another gift he had?

_""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""_

**I read the crazy story about Tamerlane using human skulls to play polo, and I had to use it, but it looks like it's just a myth. There's another nasty story about him too that he'd have anybody who told him the same joke twice put to death. D:**


	3. Lovely Alice

**Chapter 3**

Aro's servant girl, Celine, was a young Floridian intern in her early twenties, but for some reason Alice thought she was much younger. Maybe it was the conservative way the girl dressed in flats and a simple sundress, or maybe it was her plain brown, wispy hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her doe brown eyes watched everything with a degree of fear, and she was so nervous, she usually dropped something whenever a vampire came into the room.

This made Alice immediately want to take Celine under her wing, putting her arm around her shoulder, talking to her sweetly. She told Celine she was going to take her shopping. She then assured her that she would request that Aro make Celine her personal assistant, so she could look after her from now on. Celine was so grateful she nearly fell into Alice's arms, tears coming to her eyes, talking about how she foolishly took this job overseas without telling her parents and now there was no way to get home. Already Alice was thinking about how she was going to sneak the girl out of there.

Celine led Alice to the Volturi armory, where there were racks and racks of clothes, some of them antiques. All of them black and red.

"It's odd how the clothes stay preserved," Celine said.

"It doesn't surprise me," Alice explained. "Moths, beetles and crickets all avoid places with the undead. They know what we are and they stay away."

"Wow, to think that's another thing you don't have to worry about. It must be amazing to be a vampire. You must be so excited to be one of the Volturi Guard," Celine gushed.

"More like certifiably insane," she grumbled, sorting through clothes. She still couldn't believe she signed up for a hundred years. She didn't care what Aro said, Chelsea had to have _something _to do with this.

Celine tried to help her pick out an outfit, holding up jackets and dresses. "What about this?" she asked, holding up a black Galliano vest with red pin strips. "It looks like it's in your size."

_"_That might do," Alice agreed, checking out the label. All of the clothes were fine quality and in excellent condition, but then she stopped herself. Why did she even care? She was going to look like a dork no matter what she picked. With that in mind, she grabbed a pair of slacks and a short sleeved blouse and went with it. "Let's go."

Celine led her through a maze of meandering corridors with marble statues and antique furniture. There was a courtyard with a fountain.

Her room was elegant, but busy, with Persian carpets and hand carved furniture. A hideous, four poster bed with gargoyles carved into it took up almost a quarter of the room.

"Master Aro said you would need a room with a bed because you enjoyed a vigorous sex life," Celine said.

"Oh good grief, he said that?" Sometimes she just wanted to punch Aro right in the nose. "Yeah I used to have a _vigorous_ sex life…with my husband. Who will probably never forgive me. In fact, I'll probably never have sex again."

"Would you like me to see if I can find you another room?"

Alice touched Celine's hand. "It's okay. I don't really don't care. I just need to get ready to go to Gotham."

"May I ask you a great favor, Madame Alice?" Celine steepled her fingers together, her eyes darting back and forth.

"Anything."

"May I sleep in here while you're away? Sometimes there are hungry vampires lurking the halls. I'm afraid."

"Of course. Don't worry about a thing, Celine, I'll look after you." Alice put her arm around her, but then pulled away. The girl had a warm coppery scent that made her hungry. Damn it, she needed to feed.

"""""""""""""

Aro couldn't help but smile when he found Alice standing by the elevator, tapping her foot, prepared to leave for Gotham. "How wonderfully punctual you are, my dear. Am I late?" he murmured, offering his arm.

"No, I'm early." Alice said, looping her hand over his forearm, letting him walk her to the plane. She gave him one of her half smiles that made it clear she was singularly unimpressed.

Aro couldn't help but laugh. She was so unwaveringly sanctimonious. He could just imagine her first night with Jasper, lecturing him about the evils of drinking human blood, while taking off all her clothes. Nothing like a full night of abstention and sex to get you going. Yet for some reason, he found her virtuous temperance unnervingly sexy. She was so blatantly humanistic that he wanted to defile her. Yet it would have be somebody else. He could not allow himself to get involved with a member of the guard.

"I must say, you make a lovely guard, Alice. Come sit with me on the plane and we'll talk about your former lover, Gwynplaine."

Alice stiffened. "I wouldn't say he was my former lover," she argued. "He just turned me into a vampire."

"Ah, but he was much more than that. You don't remember?"

"No!" Abruptly she let go of his arm and darted up the stairs to board the plane.

Aro followed close behind, grabbed her by the shoulders, speaking softly into her ear. "Alice, when we are with others, you will address me as _Master_."

"Yes, Master."

"And you can be sure, I _will_ find every facet of the truth."

"I'm sure you will, _Master_." Smoothly, she untangled herself from his grip, slipping away to her seat.

Aro was prepared to follow her, but he was stopped by Caius.

"You should not be traveling without Renita. You're not properly protected."

Aro sighed. "Brother, I have just gotten back from seeing Renita, and her mind is utterly scattered. It's going to take her weeks for her to recover, maybe months. A good portion of her memory is completely gone. I cannot wait for her. Not while that monster has Jane."

"But there are others who can go beside you."

"I disagree. Anyone who touches the Joker will have their mind scattered as well. I, on the other hand, know how he does it. In fact, I think I might be able to do the same thing to him. So if you wish me to have a body guard, I recommend you come with us."

Caius made a grumbling noise and then disappeared, only to join them a couple minutes later when they had taken their seats, sitting across from him and Alice.

While the plane took off, Alice ignored him, chatting with Alec, grabbing a magazine. She even started fiddling with her headphones. _Like she was really going to put those on._

Aro put his hand over the magazine. "I want you to tell me everything you remember about Gwynplaine."

Alice glared at him. "I don't even know why you're even asking me this. You read my mind. You probably know more than me."

"I hope that's not going to be your answer, every time I ask you a question, because if it is, it will become very tiresome."

"Actually, what I see is a menagerie of images and emotions, and unlike you, I haven't had time to catalog them and make sense of it all. I want you to organize it for me, to voice your opinions. The man I met, the Joker, has to have one of the bleakest and darkest minds I've ever read. He's not simply a psychopath. I read the minds psychopaths and they are as dull as dishwater, because they have no emotions. The joker, on the other hand, is a cauldron of emotions and he wants to drag everybody down into his hell. But with you he was different. He showed you sympathy. He cared for you. You were lovers. But you're terrified of him, even now. Look at this." He grabbed her fingers. "They're trembling. talk to me. I've seen many sorrows. How can you be so scared of somebody you don't remember?"

Alice glanced mulishly over at Caius and Alec and then across the aisle at Demetri and Felix, her lips pursed.

"Is it privacy you want?" Aro asked.

"Well to be honest, I don't even really want to talk to you, but…"

"We'll go to the back room."

She sighed. "_Yes, Master_."

Waiting until they lifted off and for the seatbelt sign quit blinking, Aro led her to the back of the plane to a small room with a nightstand and a bed.

Alice took one look at the double bed with its neatly stacked pillows and folded blankets and cringed. "Why do you have this on the plane?" She asked, looking over at him like she thought he was going to pounce on her.

"It's mostly used for human transport? But sometimes we use it if somebody's injured. You're welcome to lay down if you want."

"No thank you." Clutching her purse, she took a seat, her back ramrod stiff. "What do you want to know?"

Aro sat down next to her on the far side of the bed. "Everything."

Alice laughed and threw up her hands. "I don't know what to tell you. I don't know why he's interested in me. Maybe it's like you said, I was his singer."

"Are you sure you don't remember anything else?"

"Yes."

Aro couldn't believe she was lying to him. She had to know he could tell. And what was this relentless desire of hers to erase everything she was? Everything about her spoke of deception. She hid her natural Southern accent behind a more nondescript Midwestern tone. She dressed herself up in the latest fashions, shying away from her love of straight-line chemises, pleated skirts and cloche hats. All remnants of her original slang had been bottled up and gagged, a tiny embarrassed smile coming to her face if she slipped.

Of course part of the façade had to come from going to high school over and over again. Nobody wanted to sound like a grandma, so she worked hard at altering her speech and tried to keep up with the current style. But her change was more drastic than that. She had rewritten who she was, reinventing this perky, happy Alice that never really existed. It bothered him.

Leaning forward, he looked her straight in the eye. "You know, Gwynplaine was quite furious when the hospital trepanned you. That's why he killed your doctor."

Her eyes went wide and she frowned. "What?" Trembling fingers padded over her scalp, threading through her hair. "What do you mean, I was trepanned? Where is it?"

Now he felt a little guilty, blatantly saying it like that, but he wanted to see how she'd react. "It's right here." Gently he directed her hand to the small indent on her skull above her left ear where the doctor drilled a hole. There was a tiny gray streak of hair, like a sliver of white paint, where the incision had killed the pigment in her hair follicles. "According to the Joker's memory, they didn't use anesthesia, because you were already so groggy from the phenobarbital. He could hear you whimpering though from his locked cell. Even way back in 1918, trepanning was considered an archaic and barbaric procedure for epilepsy, but your doctor went ahead with it anyway."

Alice frowned and looked down at her hands. "I forgot I had epilepsy?"

"That's what causes your visions. I noticed that before. I get the feeling though, that your seizures are not as numerous and pronounced as they were when you were a human. Gwynplaine once counted at least a fifty petit mal seizures in you in one day that lead up to a grand mal seizure, and you had a vision for each one."

"But epilepsy wasn't on my East State medical file when I went back to check my record."

"You and Gwynplaine took your files and burned them. I'm sure whatever you found when you went back later on was put together for your death certificate."

"What about James?"

"What about him? Gwynplaine scattered his brain. That why he just wandered off. He had no idea where he was." Aro could tell her confusion was genuine. Obviously, the Joker had scattered _her_ brain. Yet she still was holding back. _She doesn't want to remember her past._

"You seem to know more about me than I do," she said softly, reaching into her purse to grab a tissue. But when she did, her body went stiff and her eyes became glassy, her irises vibrating.

Aro watched her, fascinated. Grabbing her hand, he couldn't believe his luck. He was finally going to see one of her visions up close.

But when he touched her, Alice fingers clamped around his palm like a vice clamp.

_Around him were vehicles, a truck, a station wagon, and two motorcycles. The building had a neon sign that said __**Calamity Jan's.**__ In the distance there were miles of weeds, sage brush, and a wire fence. A streetlight was blinking yellow down the road. The Joker and Jane were pouring out cans of gasoline. _

"_You know," the Joker said, "even if we do this, the cops will still be after us. Arson is a serious crime."_

"_At least they won't know vampires killed everybody." Jane argued, annoyed that a few drops of gasoline dripped on her black patent shoes, wiping it off with a napkin. Aro thought she looked ghastly. She was so bloated, her eyes bulbous and red, a tiny trickle of blood dripping out of her tear ducts. **How much blood did she drink?**_

"_So you're still sucking up to Aro, aren't you?" the Joker teased, wagging his finger. "You want him, don't you?" _

"_When the Volturi come to kill you, I don't want them coming after me too." Jane stiffed and held her stomach, trying to swallow, but then her body jerked and she doubled over, throwing up a gush of blood._

"_I told you not to finish the bartender."_

"_I didn't want him to go to waste."_

"_You're going to have to get over that. Sometimes you just got to kill a lot of people." _

"_Let's go to a hotel after this. I need a shower, and not like the dump you took me last night. I want to go somewhere nice."_

'_Nag, nag, nag." The Joker stuffed a gasoline drenched table cloth down one of the gas tanks. "Now we get a show. Step back." _

_Jane smiled, "Can I start it."_

"_Go for it." _

_Lighting a book of matches, she tossed them onto the wooden ramp in front of the bar and a big burst of flames bellowed out like a wave in the night_.

The vision disappeared in a surge of heat.

Aro found himself lying on the bed, and to his surprise, he had somehow moved intimately close to Alice, his leg hiked between hers, his face so close they were almost touching. One of his hands rested on her thigh.

Alice stared at him with big eyes.

"Excuse me, my dear," he said, embarrassed, removing his hand. "I must say that was quite memorizing… to see what you see before it happens."

"Whatever, Aro." Alice sat up up.

Quickly he moved to his feet, her scent still lingering on his clothes. He knew why he moved in on her. It was the fiend in him. She was so human like. He wanted to ravish her. "How long do you think we have before this happens?"

Alice smoothed out her blouse. "I don't know, a few hours."

"We have a ten hour flight." Aro left her, and raced to the front to plane. "Alec, see if you can find a bar called _Calamity Jan's_. I have no idea where it is, but I believe it's somewhere in the United States, possibly the Midwest. It looks barren."

"Yes, Master." Alec pulled out his laptop.

Caius frowned. "What happened?"

"Alice had a vision."

"Is Jane still alive?"

"Yes," Aro said sadly. "She's helping him."

""""""""""""


	4. Gotham

**Chapter 4**

_Dear Jasper, _

_Let me say first how much I love you. I know you must be angry with me, and yes you have every right. But please consider what I… _

Alice paused, her pen in midair. She couldn't write this. Her words sounded hollow. Yes, she had done this to keep him and the Cullens safe, but Jasper would never accept that. Crushing the letter in her fingers, she stuffed the mottled paper in her purse, and lifted her seat tray.

Aro looked over at her, _knowingly_. "Dear Alice, would you like_ me_ to write the letter? I know exactly what you are trying to convey -"

"No," she snapped, but then she saw his eyes narrow, so she changed her tone. "Thank you, anyway..._Master_." Flustered she turned to look out the window, watching the city of Gotham come into view under the clouds.

Aro turned her chin to look at him. "My dear, you seem to be somewhat blood deprived and anemic, which I think is making you _peevish_. May I offer you some nourishment?" His smile practically demanded she take his offer.

"No, I'm… thank you. I'm fine. Really, I'm good…_Master._" She smiled.

He touched her cheek. "Ah… so charmingly ill-behaved. But I have every confidence we shall fix that."

"Great, I'm glad to hear that." _God, he was annoying. _Like an earwig in her brain. He knew more about her than she did herself. She kept thinking about the indent in her skull, where Aro had told her she had been trepanned. _How could I have forgotten this?_ But then again, she hadn't wanted to remember, had she?

Caius, who was sitting across from her, working on an amazingly detailed sketch of his hand, looked over at Alec's iPad with the headline, _**Tavern set on fire in the desert in Tinker Nevada, **_and closed his notebook. "Brother, are you sure we're making the right choice going to Gotham instead of trying to follow the Joker and Jane."

"He'll be long gone," Aro said. "The Joker likes to put distance between himself and the carnage he's creates. Is that not right, Alice?"

"Yeah I suppose."

Aro raised his eyebrows.

"Yes I suppose, _Master_."

"But what was it you were saying earlier," Caius asked. "You thought you could scatter people's minds like he did?"

"Yes, I think I could." Aro brought his fingers together. "The Joker is basically just a tactile telepath like myself, but he uses it differently. He doesn't even try to read people's minds. He just wants to scatter them. His loathing of humans and vampires is extreme. All he wants to do is destroy. It would have never crossed my mind to brutalize someone's mind this way… ever. But now that I've seen it done, I think I could pull it off."

"You could practice on humans," Caius suggested.

"Oh no, I wouldn't do that. It's too cruel. Humans are so fragile." Aro glanced over at Alice and frowned. "Indeed, vampires don't always recover."

Alice grit her teeth and turned away. _Definitely an earwig. A smug, pompous, annoying, batshit crazy earwig._

But then a memory of being in a blood soaked hotel room with Gwynplaine kissing her on the lips flittered into her mind and she remembered what crazy was really like.

""""""""""""""""""""

Once they landed, rain started coming down in sheets.

Alice had never been to Gotham before. She had always assumed the place was just another megalopolitan like New York City, but she was wrong. This city was creepier, more claustrophobic, and dingy then New York City could ever be. The famous 1920s Gotham architect, Adok Król, liked his buildings to have a cadaverous look, very tall and slim with ribbed metal frames that rippled up the sides like an exoskeleton. This made the streets quite narrow and the buildings were close together. The sidewalks seemed to be constantly cast in shadow, which made her feel like she was indoors, even when she was outside.

_No wonder Gwynplaine liked this place._

With no umbrella, she was ushered into a cab dripping wet with Demetri and Felix crushing her in the middle.

"Take us to the Capri." Felix told the driver.

"You know that place is a dump, don't you?" the cabbie said, looking over his shoulder.

"We like sordid hotels. Don't we, _Alice_?" Demetri smirked, elbowing her in the side.

"Ow." Alice elbowed right him back. "That hurt. What's your problem?"

"You know what my problem is. I can't believe Aro made you a 2nd lieutenant. You just waltz right in Volterra and Aro gives you a promotion simply because you have _visions_. Just like that."

Alice looked him straight in the eye, refusing to be intimidated. "What can I say? I'm an asset."

"No you're not. You're worthless."

"_I'm worthless? _How long have you been trying to track the Joker? Seventy years? I thought there was nobody on Earth you couldn't track."

Felix laughed. "She's got you there."

Demetri wrapped his hand around her throat. "His thoughts are too erratic. I can't zero in on them. At least I don't have to fuck the boss to get ahead. That's what you were doing in the back room on the plane, wasn't it?"

Alice shoved his hand away. "Yeah, Aro and I are real close. In fact, you should be nice to me."

"I knew it."

"She's making that up." Felix chuckled. "Aro hasn't been with anybody in years."

"Well it's obvious she's his pet, aren't you, _Alice_?"

"Yeah, I am. _Whatcha you gonna do about it_?" Alice noticed a tint of her Southern accent crept into her voice when she said that. She never could talk smack without revealing where she was from. "I see working with you two is going to be a real pain in the ass."

"In more ways than one."

"""""""""""""""""""""""""

When they got to the hotel, Alice decided the cabbie was right. The Capri _was_ a dump. Built in the 1970s, the lobby had orange and red carpet with matching naugahyde furniture.

"What lovely décor," Caius said, picking off a piece of plaster that floated down from the ceiling onto his black coat.

"Take my word for it," Aro mused, motioning to Felix to get them some rooms. "Retro will be the 'in' thing in another twenty years. We should buy this place."

"We should burn it to the ground," Caius sneered. "Do you smell what I smell?"

"I do."

So did Alice, but she didn't know what it was. A harsh musky scent, like cat spray, but worse. But it seemed to be invisible to the humans around them, because nobody mentioned it. And she couldn't smell it when they got to their rooms.

Careful not to touch the bed for fear of dried sperm, Alice walked around the furniture with her hands in the air. A plastic bouquet of flowers sat on the table with at least twenty years worth of dust. "It's a good thing we're already dead. Otherwise I think we all would come down with tetanus."

"Lockjaw would be an improvement for you." Demetri said.

"Pay attention," Caius commanded, unrolling a set of blue prints out on the table. There was a maze of tunnels underneath the Capri. "This building used to be a station for the Gotham underground tram. But since no one travels to Hamlyn beach anymore because of the toxic waste, they shut it down."

"But the tunnels are still there." Aro pointed to a stairwell and then an underground track. "This is where the Joker's hideout is. Along the track, in an abandoned train car. At least one of them. He keeps stuff stashed everywhere, but according to his memories, this place was the most important. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough time to see why. There are some henchmen who are camped out here in the hotel, some of them newborns, but they won't go down below. We'll take care of them later."

Caius' brows furrowed. "Why won't they go below?"

"I'm sure you already know. You detected their wonderful scent when we came in."

"Purebloods."

"I knew it." Demetri grumbled. "This place reeks of them."

Felix rubbed his eyes. "I hate purebloods. All those little sharp teeth."

"Don't worry, Felix," Aro said, patting him on the shoulder. "Will burn them out, and Alec should be able to keep them from escaping."

Alec straightened his back, a smile coming to his face.

"I know this is going to sound like a dumb question." Alice said. "But what the hell are purebloods?"

Demetri burst out in laughter. "You don't know? Well you're going to soon find out. Because you're going to have to be the bait."

"What?" Allice turned to Aro.

"I'm afraid he's right," Aro said, rolling up the blueprints, grabbing their bag filled with flashlights. "You're the only female we have. Usually we use Renita, but she isn't here."

"I'm bait? Why do I get the feeling that this is going to suck?"

"Because it is," Demetri said with a grin. "Welcome to the Volturi."

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

To get to the tunnels, they had to go down to the basement, below the parking garage. There were spider webs and old dining chairs stacked everywhere. Demetri had to pick two locks to get through the door.

Having read the Joker's mind, Aro knew exactly how to get there, pointing to a metal cabinet that blocked the entrance into a passageway.

Felix pushed the cabinet aside, revealing a dark hole that led into a crawl space.

Aro pulled out a flashlight and shined it inside. The tunnel had a dirt floor, covered with scraps of shag carpet and old electrical cords. Plus there were two lamps without shades plugged into the wall. Aro hit a light switch and both of them came on illuminating the passage. The place was huge, with big cinder blocks everywhere.

"Well, so much for my outfit," Alice said, looking down at her black slacks.

Aro seemed to think the same thing, looking down at his black suit. "Oh well," he sighed, crawling up inside.

Alice followed close behind him, figuring she was probably safest with him. "So what's this about me being bait?"

"Aw, cara mia, don't worry. We'll look after you," he soothed, and he was about to say something else when something small and black darted across the floor.

Lightning fast, Aro reached out for it, grabbing a good sized rat in his hands. The creature struggled in his fingers, screeching, trying to bite him.

Alice gasped. "Oh God, it's got red eyes!"

"Yes, the purebloods make them," Aro said in disgust, ripping off its head. "Hand me the lighter fluid." Drenching the still squiggling creature, he lit it on fire, watching it turn to ashes. "They're probably all over the place."

"But we can't make animal vampires."

"Purebloods can," Caius said. "That's why they're such a menace. We'll have to fumigate all the tunnels."

Alice shuddered, looking around at the endless rows of cinderblocks that spread out in all directions of the crawlspace.

"Master, look." Alec shined his flashlight behind a dark girder beam. A pair of red eyes reflected in the light and then disappeared."

"I take it that's our main entrance to the old underground tram." Caius said.

"I believe so." Aro moved so fast to the spot, Alice didn't even see him move. She just saw him reappear by a man-sized hole that dropped down into complete darkness.

Alice caught up to him, surprised at how dark it was, even for her vampire eyes. Bending down, she noted the tunnel echoed like a swimming pool, and there was the sound of little feet sloshing through water. So she put her flashlight down the manhole.

The tunnel was huge and flooded with ankle-deep, greenish, murky, stagnant water that smelled like mold. Little white tiles adorned the curved walls with rust streaks and on one side were the words written in indigo:

_**Gotham City Tram.**_

_**Hamlyn Park**_

"God it stinks," Felix grumbled.

"Yes they're definitely down there." Aro leaned back.

"They won't attack right away," Demetri said. "If Alice stays up here."

"Agree." Aro turned to Caius. "I'll stay up here and protect Alice. You know where to go to find the Joker's train car, right?"

"Yes," Caius grumbled, apparently not liking the idea, but he didn't argue, putting his feet down the hole. "Go as far as you can in the other direction. They should follow."

Aro nodded.

Alice watched him jump down like a ball of light, splashing as he hit the bottom. Felix, Demtri and Alec soon followed, all of them brightening the tunnel in little bursts, as they headed back the other way, shadows dancing on the walls

_What a creepy place._

"Stay close," Aro commanded, crawling the other direction.

Alice was right behind him, noticing the dirt covering his black suit, realizing she was covered in filth as well. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but why do you need a female as bait. What do they want from me?"

Aro looked over his shoulder and smiled. "To rape you, of course. Purebloods are quite lascivious."

"They want to mate?"

"No, they just want to ravish you and tear you to pieces."

Alice stopped. "Tear me to pieces?"

"If they grab you, just start slashing them with your nails and teeth. They don't like being cut, so they tend to back off if you're vicious enough."

"I don't think I like this plan?"

"My dear, like I told you before, don't worry. I will protect you. Caius and I are so old, were practically pureblood fiends ourselves."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh please, you haven't noticed I'm a little, how should I say it-"

"Ghoulish?"

Aro laughed, as if embarrassed. "I wouldn't say it quite like that, but yes, the older you get, the more fiendish you become."

"But I thought we didn't grow and change."

"Who told you that, Carlisle?" He shook his head. "We don't grow, we morph. That's how vampires populate. They infect you and through metamorphous they change you into a vampire human hybrid. And while the most drastic change happens at first, you never stop changing. You're still quite young, so on the human/fiend scale, I'd say you're about a two. I on the other hand am a definite six, almost seven. More fiend than human. I can still control it, but it's getting harder for me."

"Do you change physically as well as psychologically?"

"Both."

"So what happens when-"

"Shsssh," Aro put his finger to her mouth and cocked his head, listening.

The sound of a thousand fingers scratching vibrated under the dirt floor beneath their hands

Aro's body was stiff, motionless, his red eyes wide. "I had no idea there were so many. They want you _badly_." He licked his lips. "Not that I blame them. You're quite the prize."

"Cut the crap, Aro. Do we need to get the hell out of here?"

Aro seemed to consider her words and then said, "Yes, run, back to the entrance." He disappeared.

Alice went to follow him, but before she could get too far, a white claw-like hand shot up through the floor.

Alice shrieked, and tried to move back, but then another claw sprouted up. All around her dirt and plaster spattered in her face, the sound of furious scratching. She bolted, but then another claw grabbed her ankle and the whole section gave away, falling apart like a giant puzzle piece collapsing down to the train tunnel underneath. With her flashlight slipping out of her hand, the darkness below illuminated displaying several white haired creatures, screeching at her, before the light extinguished in the water.

Alice cried out, trying to grab the sides of the hole, the creature still holding her by her ankle.

Aro swooped in, grabbing her hand, knocking the creature through the hole. He tried to pull her up, but two, pale, naked creatures with bulbous red eyes, crystalline skin and knotted joints grabbed him from behind, biting his neck and head.

Aro hissed and growled, his voice making high shrieking noises like she had never heard before, slashing at them with his one free hand, bloody cuts streaking across their faces. One bit his hand, and he lost his grip on her.

Alice fell back, her hands flailing into the darkness as she landed into the putrid water, hitting her head. A swarm of claws and teeth descended upon her.

""""""""""""""""""""

_**Yay cliff hanger. **_**Not that I think I'll get any complaints. I don't think I have any readers. *sniff* Oh well. If you do read, I'd love to hear from you.**

**I almost wrote "**_**Heeelp meeee!**_**" because ever since **_**The Fly**_** I've always wanted to do that. :D**


	5. Devoured by PureBloods

**Chapter 5**

Alice splashed down into a foot of icy water, smacking the ground hard, silt and slime covering her like a coat of oil. Barely able to see in the heavy darkness, she tried to sit up, only to be pressed down again by hair and claws.

Like rats, the purebloods crawled over her, their claws slipping down her pants and up her bra. One bit her nose, another her finger. Their nails tore at her and shredded her clothes, leaving a thousand little cuts all over her body.

Screaming, Alice fought back, viciously plucking eyes out, swiping them away with her sharp fingernails. When one tried to bite her neck, she bit back, her mouth and tongue burning from the undiluted venom dripping over her lips.

A stream of light beamed down from the hole above and suddenly she could see their faces, all teeth and bulging red eyes, crowding around her.

Aro jumped down, his high pitched growl echoing in the tunnel. Lightning fast, he started pulling them off her, tearing limbs and ripping off heads. The creatures scattered, trying to get away from his brutal onslaught.

Alice followed suit, digging her fingernails into the carotid artery of the pureblood on top of her, peeling off its snarling head, tossing it aside. "Get them off of me! Get them off of me!"

Aro smashed one in the head, another he disemboweled with his teeth, a plethora of viscera slopping into the water. Alice had never seen Aro so ferocious. When he had them on the run, he doused them with lighter fluid, setting them on fire.

They squealed and ran, jumping into the water to put the flames out. The tunnel ceiling flickered in gold orange as they bolted, shrieking.

Aro rushed to her, pushing her sopping hair out of her eyes, checking her for injuries. Gently he touched her face, his shoulders slumped. "My dear Alice, how can I help?"

"I don't know." Alice let out a crazy laugh, unable to stop shaking. Completely naked, her clothes now in rags, she noticed her body was covered in cuts that weren't healing as fast as she thought they should. "Why?"

"It's the venom, I'm afraid. It seeps into our skin and lingers. It will take a few days." Looking down at her hand, he was distressed to see she was missing part of her ring finger. "I didn't do a very good job of protecting you."

"Actually you did. You got them off of me pretty fast."

"Not fast enough." Shaking his head, he looked almost as cut up as herself. His jacket torn to pieces. His hair a mess. There was a bite on his neck.

Caius and Felix appeared, with Demetri and Alec showing up a minute later.

"Brother, you do realize it's going to be harder to round them up because of this commotion," Caius said, looking around at the piles of dead bodies.

"Do you think I planned this?" Aro snapped, helping Alice to stand, frowning as he looked over her body. "Do give her your long coat, will you, brother."

Caius put his coat around her dripping shoulders, the fabric so long, the hem touched the top of the water. "You're missing body parts," he said, looking at her chest.

Alice looked down and whimpered. Her left areola was missing, a mangled red bite mark left in its place. 'Oh God."

Aro pulled the coat around her to cover her, grabbing her shoulders, his face solemn. "We'll get it back for you, Cara, I swear it." To her surprise, he picked her up, and carried her like a child.

Alice felt ridiculous. "You don't need to carry me. I can still walk."

"Nonsense, let me fuss over you. It's the least I can do." Aro turned to Demetri. "Is the Joker's train car at least somewhat habitable?"

"Somewhat," Demetri said, glancing over at her face, chuckling.

"No, no, you will not laugh," Aro reprimanded sharply, his body stiff.

"Yes Master"

"I will take Alice to the train car. Alec go up to the hotel and get a large plastic box. Felix and Demetri, gather up all the pureblood bodies."

"I'll go see if I can find their nest," Caius grumbled. "It's going to take forever to fumigate this place."

"Thank you, brother." Wading back down the tunnel, Aro cradled her close. "My dear, there should be a flashlight in Caius's pocket. Pull it out and shine it in front of me, will you?"

Alice did as he asked, flashing down toward the murky water. She spotted a severed head, the eyes and mouth still moving. "Are they all males?"

"Yes. Most of the females get devoured by their offspring when they give birth."

"They're so disgusting."

"Agree," he said simply.

It made her think of what he said earlier. That he was a six on the human/fiend scale. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't true. _You're not even close._ But then she remembered how he fiercely drove them away.

"You don't need to comfort me, Cara," he said, reading her mind. "I know what I am."

""""""""""""""""

There were actually two abandoned train cars instead of one: a passenger car and an engine. They had been derailed, so the city just left them. According to Aro, the Joker had stashed documents in one of the engine compartments, which Caius had already emptied out.

"He likes to leave booby traps," Alice warned Aro.

"You don't think the purebloods were a booby trap?"

"Well…"

"Don't worry, I read his mind. It was too much trouble. He was afraid if he left wires or anything, the purebloods would set it off." Setting her down, he held her arm to keep her steady, propping open the door.

Alice was a little shaky, grabbing the metal handrail, stepping inside the car. The seats were orange vinyl with a couple of tears in them. Mold and mildew covered the windows like a thin green film. Pulling the coat around her, she took a seat, staring down at her leather shoes, the only thing the purebloods didn't rip off her.

Demetri and Felix starting carting in the pureblood's headless bodies, setting them on the seats, while Aro took out a small brocade satchel from the inside of his coat, pulling out one of five stainless steel, surgical scalpels. "I used to be a surgeon," he told her. "That's how I met Carlisle. I was always more interested in vampire anatomy than human though. But you have to know both well to be able to compare them."

"So you're a doctor?"

"Not by today's standards."

"So how is vampire anatomy different? I mean, I know we have a bunch of organs we don't use but…"

"Well that's the whole thing. We do use them, only differently. Our digestive track is now attached to our circulatory system. Our liver detoxifies our venom." Aro sliced into the abdomen of one of the purebloods, pulling out the intestines and then the stomach. "Our lungs are filled with venom and regulate body temperature, which is around 55°. It's actually quite fascinating."

"Please tell me you haven't performed live autopsies on vampires."

"Of course, I have. If you break the law and are disagreeable enough, we can do whatever we want with you." Aro made a long slit down the esophagus and then the stomach, slowly letting out bile and debris, sifting through the contents.

Alice watched, somewhat fascinated and grossed out at the same time. "Is it that easy to torture someone?"

Aro lifted his eyebrows. "You don't approve. But you don't understand? It used to be a common practice in the old days to torture your enemies. The covens would have thought I was soft if I didn't make their punishments grim. Society makes the rules, not I. If it helps any, I haven't done that sort of thing for a long time. It's not socially acceptable anymore. In fact we have rules against it now, which obviously you haven't read._"_

"I read them."

Aro glared at her.

"Okay, maybe not in depth, but I skimmed them."

"Ah, your first infraction. We shall have to have a long talk about discipline when you've recovered."

"_Yes, Master_," she said, doing her best Peter Lorre impersonation."

"Ah, now you have two infractions. So badly behaved. What am I going to do with you?" His voice was teasing, but his expression was quite serious, lifting out the pureblood's stomach, skimming his fingers along the mucous membrane. "There doesn't seem to be any lumps here. Anything they've eaten couldn't have dissolved that quickly. Purebloods have venom instead of stomach acid, so it takes longer."

Alice grimaced. "You're looking for pieces of me."

"Yes… there doesn't seem to be anything in this one though." He placed the organs back in the body and tossed the carcass out the door, moving to the next, cutting open the stomach. This time he did find something. A small round piece of skin which he held up to the light, placing it in the plastic box Alec provided for him. "I think that's the chunk they took out of your thigh."

Alice looked down at her leg, pushing the coat aside, cringing when she saw the bite mark.

"Let me get another look at you." Aro wiped his hands on a handkerchief and opened the front of her coat, running the flashlight over her. "They tend to go for the genitals? Are you missing anything there?"

Alice shuddered. "No, I kept my legs firmly closed."

"Are you sure? May I have a look? I want to be sure we gather up all the pieces."

The last thing she wanted was for Aro to give her a pelvic exam. "Here, give me the damn flashlight." Gritting her teeth, she opened her legs and felt around. Everything seemed to be still there, but she ended up letting Aro have a look anyway, just to be sure. His demeanor seemed so professional. She was grateful for that.

"Very good. As far as I can see. You have eight lacerations?"

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"Oh my dear, I'm so sorry. I know this must be distressing." Covering her up again, Aro hollered down to Felix who was dumping a body at the back of the car. "Once you're done there, I want you to carry Alice upstairs and put her to bed."

"I don't want to go to bed," Alice grumbled.

"You will lay down. I won't have you running about."

"I can walk."

"I rather you didn't."

"Oh good grief…can I at least take a shower first, before I have to _go to bed_?"

Aro seemed to consider this, using a penlight to check her eyes. "Are you experiencing any dizziness?"

"No." She pushed his hand away. "Since when do vampires get concussions?"

"They don't, but purebloods can cause venom poisoning."

Alice sighed. "I'm fine."

"Actually you're quite shaken up and your blood deprived. But I suppose you can take a shower. I must warn you though when you look in the mirror." He leaned forward, his brows furrowed. "A good portion of your nose is missing."

"What?" Alice's fingers jumped to where her nostrils were supposed to be, only to find them gone, mushy jagged flesh in their place." She wanted to cry.

Aro grabbed her hand. "I had to tell you before you saw it in the mirror."

"My nose."

"I promise, we will restore you if it's the last thing we do. The Volturi take care of their own."

"God damn it, you better," Alice growled

"Ah…now that's the spirit, Cara. I like your rage better than your sorrow. You know you rather surprised me back there, when you started gouging out eyeballs. That's an old Wendigo trick. You're a lot fiercer than I first took you for." He smiled. "Felix, take her up now."

"Yes Master." Without warning, Felix picked her up and in seconds she was being carted down the tunnel.

"You know I can walk," she told him.

"Shut up, Alice. You heard the Master. You're supposed to lay down and take it easy."

"Fine." Alice was starting to realize she had made a grave and horrible mistake joining the Volturi.

"""""""""""""""""""


	6. Love on a Freight Train

**_Warning: Lemons._**

**Chapter 6**

Jane had never been on top of a train before. Running from car to car, the wind in her hair, she could see the lights of the city far in the distance and smell the scent of rain in the air. Above her were stars, like powdered light, and around her were wheat fields and oil pumps. Eastern Kansas was flat and surprisingly barren. There was no one for miles. An idea kept rushing her brain. _Let's take the train._

The Joker didn't want to do that though, standing a few cars from the engine, his scarecrow form watching everything like a grizzled vulture.

Jane approached him carefully, cautiously. While she hadn't seen his temper up close, she sensed it. As if at any time he might rip out her throat, just for the hell of it.

"Shouldn't we be heading the other way toward Forks? Aren't we supposed to pick up Alice Cullen for Timur?"

The Joker looked over his shoulder. "Fuck Timur. Besides, I got a call from one of my guys. Alice hopped on a plane two days ago. She's with your buddy Aro. They're at my place at _The Capri_, pissing off all my little pureblood pets."

"You've got purebloods?"

"Oh yeah, I've been breeding them for the last two years."

Jane grimaced. "How?"

"Well, you take a human woman, tie her up down in the tunnels, and then you let nature take its course. The gestation period for purebloods is five days. All I got to do is make sure she don't die before the little nippers eat their way out. A couple of times I've had to turn the girl just to keep her alive."

Jane shuddered. "They're so nasty. I can't imagine why you would want to breed them."

"Jane, you've got no imagination…seriously. Think about it. Everybody hates purebloods. _Everybody._ Nobody wants to have anything to do with them. I used to feed mob bosses and police captains to them. Not to mention, it's going to take Aro and your little friends several days to clean that place out. And they're going to need a shitload of gasoline to do it too. I got my guys in the hotel asking if they should attack, and I told them not to bother. Get the hell out of there."

"I'm glad I'm not with them," Jane said. "They would have asked me to be bait."

"Listen to you. Some Volturi guard you are. But since Demetri is buried up to his neck in pureblood shit right now, this means I won't have to scatter your brain for a couple of days. He's too busy to be tracking our thoughts."

Jane could just imagine Demetri surrounded by a hoard of purebloods. It made her laugh. How did the Joker do that? She never laughed. She sometimes wondered if she had been dead for years, following orders, doing everything the Masters told her. To finally be free of them was so startlingly liberating. She had never thought she would be able to go off on her own, but the Joker showed her she could.

"Let's go below," the Joker said in a low voice, caressing her cheek.

Jane nodded, a secret thrill rushing up inside her. Following him down the ladder, she watched him break the lock, admiring the way he swung into the empty car.

"So what are we going to do?" she said softly, jumping on the wooden floorboards into the darkness, watching his lean silhouette in the dark.

"You want me bad, don't you?" he teased, tossing the freighter straps out of the way, leaning back against the wall taking a seat. His red eyes glowed in the murky light and his knees were bent.

"What if I do?"

"Bring it on, girl"

Jane moved over to him, bending down on her knees, the floor rattling beneath her. She couldn't stop giggling. She had only had sex once in her life, and that was with Demetri. But he had been drunk on liquored up party guests and could barely get it up. The experience had been painful and humiliating.

Now Jane felt like she was over her head, and the idea thrilled her. "All my life, I've been told I'm too young to have sex. That I needed to behave myself and act like a proper young lady."

The Joker laughed. "Poor little, sex-starved, rich girl."

"I'm not a little girl."

"_I know_."

The blood rushed to her head.

"So Aro never took care of you?"

"We didn't have that kind of relationship. He's always said I was like a beloved daughter. He's very proper."

"Proper? Are you kidding me? Aro's got a screaming freak show inside his head. I scattered his brain so hard he should have been out for weeks. Instead it takes him eight days…eight fucking days. That's it." He shook his head. "Aro's crazy. You know that, don't you?"

"I like crazy."

"Ahhhh….that's why you're with me." With one quick yank, he pulled her into his lap, running his hands along her spine. Unzipping her dress, his callused hands caressed her bare back.

Jane gasped, her skin prickling. She could feel the urgency in his grip and the bulge in his pants. She arched her back, throwing her arms around him, her head swimming. She wasn't quite sure what to do, pushing back his dirty hair, trying to kiss him.

He murmured into her mouth. "Slower. Never rush it. Life sucks too much to rush through the good parts." Lifting the heavy, dark folds of her skirt, he placed one finger on her thigh, tickling her all the way up between her legs to the elastic hem of her underwear.

_God he was such a tease._ She couldn't stand it. With her mouth still close to his, she bit his lip, licking off the blood soaked venom, letting it burn her tongue.

The Joker flinched and jerked away, grabbing her by the hair, yanking her head back. "Really? You want to play rough? You might regret it. Almost every woman I've ever been with no longer exists."

"Except her." Jane whispered, unable to say her name, wanting to take her place.

"Except her," he said with a frown, his eyebrows slanting.

"I'm not that easy to kill."

"No I guess you're not." Tossing her on her back, he ripped off her underwear, nuzzled her neck, and moved his hand up between her legs.

Jane squirmed and whimpered beneath him, little sequins of pleasure bursting through her brain like starbursts.

_Nothing was like this. Nothing._

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Even after seventy-two hours, a shower and clean clothes, Alice still couldn't look at her face. With half her nose missing, she felt like a freak, covering herself up with the scarf Aro bought her, trying not to look at the hand with the missing finger. _I've been mauled._

In typical Aro fashion, he shooed her worries away, telling her she was still beautiful, explaining they would fix her, while making hotel and flight reservations, talking sweetly to the travel agent. He looked like a mess, his clothes dingy with grime, a gaping wound on his neck, yet his manners were impeccable. How did he do it? And how could she complain, when he was in almost as bad a shape as she was, and he hadn't even taken a shower yet.

"I should go down to the tunnels and help?" Not that she really wanted to go. The thought of being surrounded by purebloods again terrified her.

"You will do no such thing," he said, ordering her to lay down.

Alice ignored his order, grabbing a handful of handy wipes, cleaning off the table, brushing lint off the crushed velvet orange chair she was sitting in. She still couldn't bring herself to touch the bedspread.

"Ah, what am I going to do with you?" Aro chided.

"Hey, if you think I'm a germophobe, you should see Rosalie."

"_Germophobe _is a silly word. I think you mean mysophobic**.**"

"Whatever."

The Volturi had spent days trying to get back all her pieces back. Aro even called for more back up, several other Volturi guards showing up like Santiago and Afton, including Heidi, who wasn't happy at all at becoming the new 'bait.'

Now Aro was moving Alice to another hotel, someplace nicer, cleaner, and he had secured a medical office with an exam table, so they could reattach all her parts.

"I will have Caius do the reattachment," he explained. "He's a sculpturer and an artist, and he's much picker than me. He will make your nose look perfect."

"Somehow I doubt that considering my nose was regurgitated, but what the hell."

"No, no, you will not sulk, Cara. I won't allow it," he scolded, grabbing a couple of clean towels. "You are much too lovely a creature to have a querulous disposition. I know you are under great duress, but I insist you stay positive. I am going to go shower in the other room, and when I come back, we will leave for Wayne Plaza."

"I'll be ready," Alice said, chuckling after he left. She decided being scolded by Aro was like being beat with a feather. Somewhat painless, but strangely effective. If she wasn't careful though, at the end of the month, he'd have her decked out in Morticia Addams dresses and kissing his hand.

When he came back, fifteen minutes later, he was dressed smartly in a dark suit with a red tie, his long, dark hair still damp, toweling it dry. "Before we go, you need to eat."

Alice sat up. "What do you mean, eat?" She knew she was hungry. Her eyes were almost as black as her pupils, like _doll's eyes_, Jasper used to call them But she wasn't about to eat the maid, if that's what he was thinking.

"Look at you, already panicking." Aro waved his hand at her, before bringing in a blue cooler, setting it on the table. "Don't worry, it's nothing like that. I have packaged blood. Bartlett, a vampire associate of the Volturi, keeps sending me this stuff. He says it's the wave of the future. No contaminates or disease." He opened the cooler and pulled out several plastic containers of yellow plasma and red blood cells. "There are no platelets, which I think add a lot of flavor, but they just don't live very long. But we can mix this up and at least get you sanguine and fluidic again." He started pouring the plasma and red blood cells together, measuring it perfectly.

Alice shook her head. She couldn't drink human blood. If she did, she'd be right back where she was years ago, trying to wean herself off. "I'm sorry, I can't drink that, it must be animal blood."

"What, you want me to go down to the local pound and get you a dog."

"No, never that. I just need to hunt."

"In what forest? The cluster of trees by the interstate? We don't have time for that."

"It's okay, I can wait."

"No it's not." His gaze became fierce and he placed his hands on his hips. "You're going to need lots of venom for the reattachment procedure, and not just regular venom. Cerebrospinal venom from your lumbar region. I must get you good and saturated, or you will not have enough. It's imperative that you are fed."

"I don't care! I'm not drinking human blood. Don't you understand? It's like a horrible addiction. I must fight it at all costs."

"I see."

"We can do the reattachment when we get back," she said sullenly.

"You're forcing me to take a firm hand with you."

"You can take a firm, whatever. I'm not doing this. This is not in my contract and you know it."

Aro frowned and shook his head, still mixing the blood and plasma, making up three batches, setting it on the table.

Alice could smell the blood from where she sat, her throat burning, licking her lips. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to make her give into her craving, but that wasn't going to happen. Getting up, she walked to the terrace, looking down at the kidney shaped pool below, watching the rain make ripples in the water. Her hand turned the lock on the glass door and she pulled the panel back.

"Alice, you are not to go outside."

"Fine," she grumbled, closing the door again, turning around. "I'll go to the other room."

"No you won't. You're going to sit," he commanded.

Furious, she went back to her chair and crossed her legs, her fingernails digging into the crushed velvet. "I'm not doing this, Aro. You can't make me."

Aro rubbed his eyes and sat down on the bed, drinking the first batch of blood himself, making a slight face at the taste. His voice was soft and feathery. "How much do you know about vampire anatomy?"

"Probably not as much as you."

Aro gave her one of his creepy smiles, studying her. "When we first drink blood, it doesn't become venom right away. It runs through our circulatory system almost immediately and starts traveling through our limbs, rushing through our bodies. In fact, it takes a good hour and a half to turn into venom. That's why I want you to eat now."

"Maybe we can take a drive outside of the city," Alice suggested, hoping that he was letting this drop.

"We don't have time," he said, removing his jacket, setting it neatly on the bed, before finishing off the first bottle. He dabbed his mouth with a clean white handkerchief, making sure there was no blood, and then unbuttoned the cuff on his shirt, setting a plain gold cufflink on the table. "And since you're so stubborn, we're going to have to get a little more intimate than I had planned."

"What are you talking about?"

Rolling up his sleeve, he took a razor sharp fingernail and sliced his wrist, making a vertical cut from his palm to his forearm. The blood bubbled up in seconds, bleeding over his pale white skin.

Alice gasped, and moved to jump out of her chair, but he was too fast for her.

Pressing her to the chair, he held his wrist up to her mouth.

Alice shook her head, trying to push him off, but he held her in place, his blood dripping into her mouth. She couldn't think, couldn't move, his sanguine scent making the tiny hairs on her arms stand on end. It was so delicious. She could taste it, her vision going blurry, her mouth salivating with venom. A low growl came from inside her gut, making her fingers curl into claws. Unable to stand it anymore, she hissed and with a fierce lunge dug her teeth into his smooth flesh, tearing the skin, letting the sweet blood gush down her throat. It tasted so good, she moaned, warmth spreading over her.

Aro flinched, but held her close, settling in beside her in the chair. "Leccarsi le dita, mia cara," he murmured, petting her hair.

Alice didn't know what he said and she didn't care. She was so close to him now, she could hear the venom pulsing through his veins like an ocean in a shell into her mouth, and she shifted in the chair to make more room for him.

Gently, he moved in beside her, cradling her with his free arm.

As she drank, so did he, drinking another bottle on the table, and then the other, turning packaged blood into _his_ blood, the taste sublime. Even his scent was sublime, his skin, his hair. She had never drank blood from another vampire like this. It was almost erotic. Like the first time when Gwynplaine first changed her.

Aro read her mind. "Nothing like that, I'm afraid. I don't want to take advantage of you, my dear. You're just so stubborn. Don't you know I'm trying to help you?"

His words buzzed in her head and she sighed, sating her bloodlust. But then she noticed he was starting to taste more acidic. All that was left was venom.

Aro seemed to know it too, pulling her head back firmly by her hair, rubbing her neck. "You mustn't drain me dry," he said. "Lick the wound and seal it."

She did as he said, still somewhat dizzy, her voice hoarse. "You could have waited."

"There's no way I would risk waiting for animal blood. You're face is too delicate and you are too precious. I would rather you be angry with me than to see you disfigured."

"Nevermind what I want."

"Ah, Alice, you have no idea what it means to have a Master, do you?"

"""""""""""""""""""""""""

_**Eeeek! I know this chapter is kind of uncomfortable. **_

_**I just want to say that while I know Jane is just a teenager, I also know she is an ancient being. I think it would be grim to be treated like a child for all eternity. I also think Jane would be so anxious to be a bad girl and have sex. I always think of all those young Disney stars who immediatly go from being in kiddie movies to doing a sex scene. They want to be preceived differently, and I can't help but think Jane would want this too. Of course, she is way over her head.**_

_**As for Aro and Alice, I know this scene is somewhat dubious, but I believe Aro has her best interests at heart. There would definitely be a power struggle between them. Alice is used to doing things her own way, and Aro is used to being in charge. **_


	7. An Unnatural Smile

**Chapter 7**

"You don't have to wear a scarf, Alice. I've already seen your nose, or lack of it," Felix said, taking a seat on the cream colored sofa across from her in the waiting room.

Aro had secured an empty doctor's office for the reattachment procedure, stepping out to get supplies. Alice was glad he was gone, still seething about the way he tricked her into drinking human blood. Already she wanted one more taste, glancing over at the cooler on the desk.

Felix noticed it too. "By the way, your red eyes are beautiful," he teased.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she grumbled, putting on a pair of sunglasses. "What are you here for?" And then she saw it, leaning forward. His left ear was missing. "Purebloods?"

"Yeah, the little fuckers bit me and I didn't even know it. I was so worried about them biting off something else, I didn't even think about my ear. Caius told me to come over here, and he'd put it back on." Felix pulled out a baggie that had a severed ear inside it.

"I don't understand why Caius is doing the reattachment. Isn't Aro the one who studied medicine?"

"Yeah, but Caius is a sculptor. Back in the old days, artists had to study anatomy just as much as doctors did. It was believed you couldn't truly sculpt someone unless you understood the body inside and out."

"So Is Caius any good?" Somehow she had a hard time imaging Caius doing anything _creative_.

Felix looked at her surprised. "Caius is the master. He has sculptures all over Italy. Have you seen _Venus __of Arles?_"

"Probably…I don't remember it."

"She's modeled after Athenodora. And there's a giant chessboard in the main courtyard at the castle. All the pieces are modeled after past and present members of the Volturi guard. I'm a knight," Felix said with a grin, sitting up straight. "Speaking of artists, did you know that Joker was a painter?"

Actually she did. She remembered a painting of his that he worked on at the hospital of a ghoul carrying around severed heads. It still haunted her. "No I didn't."

"Would you like to see some of his work?"

Her skin prickled. "He kept them?"

"Yes, I got his treasure box down in the rental car. You wouldn't believe what he considered valuable."

"I'd like to see it." Her fingers curled into little balls.

Disappearing out the door, Felix was back, before she realized he was gone, carrying an old army lockbox, setting it down in front of her. The padlock was broken off, still hanging from the clasp.

Alice tried to remain calm, biting her lip, opening the lid slowly. What did she expect, human skulls, dead rats? To her surprise there was nothing but documents, maps, rolled up prints, carnival masks and old clown gadgets, like party buzzers. Plus an item she remembered. Gwynplaine's old musket with the bayonet. Picking the weapon up, she could almost feel him, his breath upon her cheek, his voice whispering in her ear.

"Aro says the Joker served in Queen Anne's War. That's part of the reason he's so crazy. He's got PTSD. You know how vampires always keep the same frame of mind they have when they were changed. Well the Joker was-"

"Shell-shocked," Alice murmured.

Felix nodded. "Take a look at his art. It's pretty interesting. The folio is on the bottom."

Alice sorted through the different items, picking up a mousetrap that closed on her fingers and a pair of chattering teeth, finally coming to a large manila folder on the bottom, tied shut with a faded green ribbon. _Her ribbon_. _ No that's not possible. Or was it? _She stopped, her hands trembling. Green had always been her favorite color?

Looking up, she saw Felix watching her intently; a smile plastered on his face. That's when she knew. This was no ordinary show and tell. He wanted to see her reaction. "He painted me, didn't he?" she said, her body stiffening.

Felix's smile faded. "Yeah."

Pulling the ribbon, she opened the folder.

The parchment was stiff, old and yellowing. Gwynplaine drew with pencil and charcoal, his figures cast in dark shadows. She recognized the first one immediately. He had drawn her right after they shaved her head. A bandage was pasted above her ear. Her eyes looked big, sad and she had her fingers in her mouth, sitting in the corner of the cell.

Alice swallowed hard, trying not to remember.

"_Please stay with me tonight. Will you?" _

"_Doll, it's freezing cold in here," he whispered. "If I lie with you, you'll catch pneumonia."_

"_I don't care," she said, touching his pale icy hand, running her finger along the spider web of scars that ran along his wrist, "I'm going to die anyway. The seizures are going to kill me. I've seen it."_

"_Is that so? What else do you see?"_

Quickly, she pushed the thought away, turning picture after picture, one painting standing out; a watercolor of her in a cloche hat. Her chiffon party dress was emerald green and her eyes were blood red. Proof that she had spent time with him as a vampire, more memories coming to the surface. They made her want to throw up.

Yet still she kept turning, her curiosity overcoming her fear. Some of the drawings were so old, they were disintegrating: ragged and homeless people, women in tight bodices and men in wigs. One girl struck her as odd, with dark long hair and cloudy eyes, she looked almost ethereal. And there were many drawings of her.

_Who was she?_

"Her name was Dea." A voice behind her said, answering her question. "She looks a lot like you, doesn't she?"

Alice turned around to see Aro standing over her shoulder "You scared me. I didn't hear you come in."

"I'm sorry, my dear. I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I did 'hello'." Gently, he squeezed her wrist, barely touching her skin, _reading her mind, no doubt_.

Alice turned back to the picture. "Who was she?"

"She was the love of his life. Gwynplaine found her as infant when he was ten. Her mother had frozen to death. A single drop of frozen milk, resembling a pearl, was suspended from dead woman's nipple.** Of course the girl was weak and blind, but Gwynplaine took care of her. Helped raise her."

"He must have been different as a human then," Felix noted.

"Much different," Aro agreed, unlocking the exam room. "Born the son of Lord Linnaeus Clancharlie, Marquis of Corleone, he was abducted when he was two by one of King James II's henchmen and sold to _comprachicos_, child-buyers, who mutilated his face to be like a clown's mask for their traveling freak shows."

Alice was horrified. "They gave a Glasgow grin to child?"

"Much worse than that, I'm afraid. It was like a rictus. He was made to resemble the Greek mask of comedy with alterations made to his brow, eyelids, cheekbones, ears, nose and mouth…including cutting off the lips. Truly he was hideous."

"But he doesn't look like that now."

"The venom repaired him. Gave him his face back, but he could never get rid of the scars. Of course, he didn't really want to. That's why he emphasizes his ghastly grin by painting it red. Having been a clown all his life, he didn't want to give it up in his death."

"I didn't know vampirism repaired all that?"

"Venom does strange things. When I was in my early twenties, a man whom I had a disagreement with, knocked out my right canine at Dionysus festival." Aro pointed to his teeth. "As you can imagine, I had quite a wry grin as a human. Yet when I turned, it all grew back. Venom always repairs the mouth, although not necessarily your limbs. If you're missing fingers, they won't' grow back, but…" His eyebrows lifted and he turned to Felix. "You laugh?"

"I'm sorry, Master, forgive me," Felix said

Alice was giggling too. "Somehow the thought of you being drunk and belligerent at a toga party seems absurd"

"Ah, but you two didn't know me. Back then it was our religious duty to get absolutely, stinking drunk and then go out and debauch pretty young ladies. While I've never been one for religion, I never missed a chance to celebrate Dionysus."

Felix shook his head. "And here my religious duties consisted of standing at the back of a church for several hours half asleep."

"Oh yes, Christians are dreary with their sermonizing, especially during the middle-ages when they were given free reign."

"Actually I loved going to church," Alice said. "All the ladies used to fuss over the pretty dresses my mom made me and they'd give me sarsaparilla and cherry cake."

"Ah, so the secret to winning your heart is to ply you with sweets?" Aro mused.

"Most definitely, at least when I was eight." Alice turned back to the picture of Dea. "So what happened to her?"

"Oh she died young, very young. She always somewhat of a sickly thing."

Silently, Alice closed the folio, feeling guilty now for going through Gwynplaine's things. Back at the asylum, people used to pay the guards to peek through the holes to stare at them. Now she was staring at him. He deserved better than that. He wasn't just a freak. What were the last words he said to her before he scattered her mind?

"_Kiss me goodbye, doll." _

Damn, she wished she hadn't remembered that.

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When Caius arrived, Alice was ushered back into the exam room. Aro washed his hands, putting on surgical gloves, meticulously laying out each of her body parts on a silver tray, cleaning them with solution. Alice couldn't look at them.

"If you could go in the dressing room, dear," Aro said, "and put on one of the hospital gowns."

Alice nodded, closing the door, changing into the flimsy garment. She looked in the mirror one last time, gazing at the hole in her face were her nose used to be. It made her think of Gwynplaine with his mutilated clown mask. What had it been like for him?

Stepping back into the exam room, she saw Caius was there now, washing his hands, complaining about the poor lighting. "There's no way I can see in here."

"There's a portable exam light in one of the other offices," Aro suggested, gesturing for Alice to get on the table.

Alice stepped up, sitting down on the edge. Her jaw felt like it was permanently locked into a grimace.

"Let me explain what we're going to do." Aro said, untying the stays of on gown, picking up a syringe with one of the biggest needles she had ever seen. "For the best results, we need to use cerebrospinal venom to reattach your skin. Cerebrospinal venom is the most undiluted venom in your body, rich with macronutrients and chemical compounds that will help your body to repair itself. So I'm going to do a lumbar puncture."

Alice stayed his hand. "You're giving me a spinal tap?"

"Well, that's rather a colloquial term for it, but yes."

Alice jumped off the table, spinning around. "I don't think I want to do this. It's going to hurt like hell."

"Maybe a little." Aro put his thumb and forefinger together.

"Oh course it's going to hurt," Caius snapped. "This is unpleasant for all of us. But you don't see any of us complaining about it."

"Is that your idea of pep talk, Caius? Cause it needs work."

"Is that your idea of insolence, Alice? Because I don't remember saying you could address me by my first name. Aro may coddle you, but I for one will not accept any disobedience."

Aro stepped in between them. "Patience Brother. Remember she's new and she's been through a lot. Why don't you get the other lamp, while I prepare Alice for the procedure?"

"Fine." Caius said, glaring at her, before he left.

When the door closed, Aro turned to her. "You should always refer to him as _Master_. We did talk about this."

Alice shook her head. "I've had enough. In the last few days, I've lost my husband. I've lost my finger. I've lost my nose. I've lost my dignity." She choked. "I lost my vow never to drink human blood."

"Is that what this is about? You're upset for drinking human blood."

"Yes I'm upset."

Aro furrowed his brows. "Do you want your body fully restored?"

"Of course I do, but-"

"No 'buts'. You must believe me. I'm very knowledgeable about what must be done to put a body back together. I've been sliced into pieces more times than I care to remember and it takes a lot out of you. You will not recover as quickly from animal blood. It's not what the vampire in you truly wants. You know this. You can taste it."

Alice had to admit, part of what he said was true. Human blood was so satisfying. It was everything she ever craved

"Cara, it's obvious that like Carlisle, you should never have been made into a vampire. You don't have the stomach for it. I get the feeling Gwynplaine knew that too when he made you, but James forced his hand. But this is what you are, and I want to see your pretty face again intact. So please stop fighting me. Let's get this over with." Aro patted the table, motioning for her to take a seat.

Alice reluctantly did as she was told, watching out of the corner of her eye as he picked up the syringe. "Were you always such a smooth talker?" she asked.

"Yes and no, I am whatever I have to be." His thumb padded down her spine, until he found the spot. "Now keep your back straight, but don't hold yourself too tight. It will only hurt worse."

Alice tried to relax, gritting her teeth when the needle was inserted, a piercing pain shooting up her spine.

"Hold on a second. I need to get two bags." He filled the first bag and set it on the tray.

Alice was surprised to see it was a very faint pink. She always thought venom was clear, but then it was always somewhat mixed with blood.

When Aro was done, he told her to lay down. "Now you can relax. The worst is over. You need more blood though." Mixing up another glass of packaged blood, he handed it to her.

This time she just drank it, without complaint, too exhausted to argue. She noted it wasn't quite as delicious when Aro had fed her from his wrist.

"Ah, good girl." Aro smiled.

Alice lay back, studying him. "I guess you won. But then I don't know how to play the game like you do."

"This is no game, my dear. Is that what you think?"

"In a way, yes. You want to bind me to you. I think you'll find I'm not the prize you think I am. It's funny though, when you win, you look different. You smile for real. Like right now."

Aro cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"Most of the time, you've got a very creepy smile. Where your body doesn't quite match your face. I've seen it in visions, right before you rip off someone's head. It's what scares me the most about you."

"I see." Aro stiffened. "That's my _Pyrrhos_ smile. At least that's what Sulpicia used to call it. 'I want your real smile,' she'd say. She'd demand it. I miss her. She knew me well."

"Why do you call it your _Pyrrhos_ smile?"

Aro grimaced. "Oh it's a long story, somewhat tedious-"

"Tell me."

"I'd rather not."

"Oh come on, _please._ You've seen me naked and noseless for gosh sakes. The least you could do is share something with me. After all, you won. I'm drinking human blood."

Aro sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you. But it's not something I'm proud of. When I was fourteen, I wanted nothing more than to be a helmsman in the Athenian fleet. Everyone always thinks it's the captain in charge, but back then, the captain was more of a political position. The real man in charge was the helmsman, the _kybernetes_. It was my dream. I loved the sea. But you couldn't just apply for the job, you had to work your way up to it, and schmooze the powers that be. They call it pederasty now. Which unbeknown to many, did exist even back when I was growing up. It was expected that a young man would find a mentor to help his position, and I being rather good looking had many offers, but there was one I could not refuse, Pyrrhos."

"So Pyrrhos was a person, not a place."

"Yes, he was a powerful general and he was in charge of the fleet. If I was ever to follow my dream, I had to accept his offer of love. The problem was that…" Aro hesitated. "I found nothing in Pyrrhos even remotely attractive. Indeed, I thought he was a pig. He ate too much, he was slovenly, lazy and he used to babble on for hours about what a great man he was. He wrote me numerous letters of endearment, which I tossed into the fire. My father, my teachers, _everybody_ told me I'd be fool to not take his offer. I would be ruined if I turned him away. So I learned how to endure his company and smile. Of course, it couldn't be just any smile. You've got to smile with your eyes," Aro pointed to his brows, turning his face upward. "You've got to look truly delighted."

Alice frowned. "But you were only fourteen?"

"Yes, I believe most of the world would consider this practice a crime now, but it was the norm than. _Society rules_, as they say.

"You were forced to become the lover of a powerful man?"

"I wasn't forced. I could have said no. My ambition made me say yes."

"I don't know. It sounds like they didn't give you much choice. And I'm sure it was uncomfortable for you if you weren't attracted to men."

"Oh no, I've had several male lovers. Caius and I used to be very close. But while I've always thought of Caius as beautiful, I did not think that of Pyrrhos. The whole relationship was…_distasteful_. That's probably why I could never stomach concubines. They always seemed to be smiling at me with that same Pyrrhos smile. Anyway, whenever I have to do something unpleasant, I tend to smile about it, even today."

For the first time, Alice realized what Aro's drive for power may have cost him. _I am whatever I have to be_. "Who would have guessed?" she said. "You have an unnatural smile just like the Gwynplaine."

Aro laughed, gazing at her. "That's not all we have in common."

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

****This line is from **_**The Man Who Laughs**_** by the amazing Victor Hugo, as well as almost all the backstory for Gwynplaine (a little bit I added). If you haven't seen the old black and white movie with Conrad Veidt, I highly recommend it. It's one of the last great films of German Expressionism. **


	8. Jasper

**I'll be honest. I've been stewing over posting this chapter because it doesn't paint a very nice picture of Aro. But then again I keep thinking, he comes from a different age, and he's a bit of a barbarian. **

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**Chapter 8**

On the plane back to Italy, Alice had three visions about Jasper. Two of them were of him walking around the walled streets of Volterra watching the castle. The third one was him meeting up with her. Knowing that Aro sent Jasper a letter informing him of her decision to join the Volturi, she was anxious to speak with him, fidgeting in her seat.

Rummaging through her purse, she pulled out her compact and tried to touch up her nose. _God I look weird._ While Caius had done an excellent job of reattaching all her missing pieces, including her nose and finger, she still had lines showing the bite mark. If only she could cover it with foundation or something. It was hard though, finding a color to match her shade of pale. Her red eyes bothered her too, their bright hue giving her contacts a violet tinge.

"You look fine." Felix grumbled, his eyes half lidded, leaning back in his seat, trying to stretch out his long legs as far as he could without knocking the seat in front of him.

Alice closed her compact and stared out the window. "I just wish it didn't look like my nose was bit off in a bar fight."

"You can barely see it."

'You lie. Even the grandmother two isles down with the inch thick glasses looked at me strange."

"Will stop complaining? We have two whole days off to do whatever we want. You know how often I get that?"

"I take it not very often."

"How about never. When Aro finally gets back, we're going to have case after case of people who need to have an audience with the Volturi. The holding cells were already filling up when we left."

"We have holding cells?"

"Of course we do, down in the dungeons."

"Can't vampires just dig themselves out?"

"Not if they want to keep their fingers. The cement is filled with venom coated razors."

Alice shuddered and put her hands in her pockets. "So why the backload. Doesn't Marcus help?"

"Let me ask you, Alice, have you ever seen Master Marcus do anything?"

"I saw him read a book."

"There's your answer."

"That can't be the only thing he does. He must do something else."

"If he does, I don't know what it is."

"I see."

"Welcome to the Volturi." Felix jokingly held up his glass of untouched water and toasted her.

"Yeah whatever," Alice snapped, letting out a low growl. "I can't believe I signed that contract. I'm such a colossal idiot. What fool willingly joins the Volturi?"

Felix shrugged. "It's not that bad."

"You just say that because of Chelsea."

"No, seriously, I like it."

"How would you know? You're not allowed to leave."

"I've left," Felix argued, his back stiffening. "In fact, I've left a few times when my contract expired. I traveled the world, started a piloting business…I even had a wife. I got so bored, I couldn't stand it. Not to mention, pretending that you're human all the time is annoying. I had to come back. The Masters always take me back too, which I'm grateful."

"I'm surprised they let you go."

"The Masters have always been upfront with me. If your contract is up. You have the option to leave."

"Even Alec and Jane."

"Well….they're considered family, so it's different for them. They're permanent."

"I got a hundred year contract and that feels permanent. Do you think I could just sneak out the back door?"

"Believe me, you don't do that."

"You don't think I could get away?"

Felix chuckled. "Alice, you wouldn't even get out of Tuscany. Demetri would track down in less than an hour, then he'd happily hand you over to a furious Aro, which take it from me, you don't want to see."

Alice grimaced. "What does Aro do?"

"Never mind, forget I said anything."

"Oh come on, tell me."

"No, I don't want to."

"Don't you want to save me from making a foolhardy decision?"

"Not really."

"I thought we were friends."

"Since when?"

"Since we were both mauled by purebloods together."

Felix looked her up and down. "Nah."

Alice smacked his arm. "Come on, where's your comradery. I'm hurt that you don't feel our deep and special bond." To emphasize, Alice gave him her best pout, complete with quivering bottom lip.

"You certainly have perfected the pathetic look?"

"I have, and I'll make sure you feel horrible guilty if you don't tell me," she said, tilting her head, trying to look even sadder.

Felix laughed. "Alright, little gossip monger, you win. Just don't repeat this, okay."

"I promise." Alice crossed her heart.

"You say that now, but Aro's going to read your mind, and then come looking for me."

"Is he really that bad…like the _thought police_?"

Felix sighed. "No he isn't. I'd just like to keep his good opinion of me. But what the hell, I'll tell you. Just try not to tell the whole world."

"Who am I going to tell?"

"The Cullens."

Alice shoulders drooped, a wave of sadness running through her. Already she missed them. "I won't. I promise. I'm part of the Volturi now."

"Don't sound so happy about it." Felix eyed her skeptically, but then he leaned closer, his voice now a faint whisper. "Back in the sixties, Chelsea made a run for it."

Alice's eyes widened. "Really?"

"And you have to understand, back then she was the absolute _queen_. She let everybody know it too, always reminding us how _crucial_ she was to the coven, telling us all we were all _riffraff_."

"Riffraff?" Alice giggled. "I'm sure Demetri liked that."

"Nobody liked it. Nobody wanted to work with her. When she changed her name to Chelsea, she didn't give anybody a chance to adjust. She'd just throw a fit if you accidentally called her Charmion. Poor Corin was in tears. Corin's a sweet girl too. She didn't deserve that. Chelsea also demanded that she and Afton have suites up on the Master's level."

"Good God, who'd want to move up there with grumpy Caius?"

Felix laughed. "Alice, you do realize, Aro's going to move you right up next to him so he can read your mind and see your visions whenever he wants."

"Don't tell me that."

"It's true."

"That's not funny."

"Oh yes it is."

"No it's not."

"What's even funnier is you don't see it."

"There's nothing to see."

"Just keep telling yourself that." Felix shook his head and wiped his eyes, still laughing. "Anyway, back to what I was saying. Chelsea was making lots of demands. New clothes, new cars. She told Caius she needed the whole west turret for some business project she and Afton were working on, which Caius said no. She then started pouting and demanded that she have two months off so she could go to Buenos Aires, because she needed some 'me time'. Now, I don't know if you've noticed, but Aro hates to give vacation, let alone two months to Chelsea."

"So that's when she left?"

"That she did, and she left a note saying she didn't want to associate herself with the Volturi anymore because we were stifling her."

"Are you serious?"

"Oh yes. Aro was livid, and believe me, he's not a man you want to have angry with you. First thing he did was hop on a plane to South America, and he brought Jane with him. He ordered Demetri and me to track Chelsea down and said he didn't care if we brought her back dead or alive. We figured he wanted her alive though, because on the flight over there, he pulled out a spike tipped whip and started salting it with venom."

"What do you mean by salted."

"It's where you take a bunch of salt and chew it into the whip, coating it with venom. A venom, salted whip will tear through vampire skin and leave a stripe which takes weeks to go away."

Alice felt the little hairs on her arms stand on end. "He whipped her?"

"He did. And it was kind of strange too, because Aro doesn't like torturing people, at least not like Caius. It's beneath him. He's _modern_ now. And if he does, he almost always uses Jane. But when we delivered Chelsea to the plane, Aro grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to his seat and put her head underneath his boot. He told her if she moved, he'd smash her skull like a melon and he kept her like that for the whole twelve hour flight, his boot in her face. Then he had Jane torture Afton. Once we were back in Volterra, he had Chelsea stripped and hung in the main hall, where he whipped her himself. Chelsea was screaming, begging for Aro to stop. But Aro told her if she wasn't going to obey him, she was worthless, a determent, and he'd see her dead before he let her go. I think Chelsea realized then that Aro had no qualms about killing her."

Alice's nails dug into the arms of her seat. "So what happened to Afton?"

"He was thrown into the dungeon and starved. Aro said it was up to Chelsea and her willingness to be helpful to get him out."

"My God, that's so medieval."

"Actually, for medieval torture, that's pretty mild. The thing is, Aro knew exactly how to get Chelsea under control. He knew humiliating her in a very public and painful way would make her change her mind. He also knew Afton was terrified of being starved and would make sure he was never put in that position again. Yet his punishment wasn't so horrible that they didn't renew their contract. In 2001 both of them signed up for another hundred years."

"Chelsea must have been coerced by Corin."

"No, Corin doesn't have that kind of power. Aro is just very persuasive. I'll be honest, Alice, I don't know exactly what Aro would do if you took off, but take my word for it, he knows how to punish you. He's read your mind. He knows how to make you beg for mercy, and then he'll convince you to follow him. Everyone always thinks it's Chelsea who bind us to the Volturi. That we're mindless sycophants. But that's not true. I can feel Chelsea's pull. But my loyalty has always been to Aro. I'd follow him anywhere."

"But he's so manipulative. Doesn't that worry you? Never knowing what he's going to do."

"But I do know what he's going to do. True, I can't predict his method, but I always know what Aro's motivation is."

"Power."

"No, if Aro wanted that, he'd be a tyrant. Everything Aro does, he does for the Volturi, plain and simple. If you make the Volturi your number one concern, you will never have a problem with him."

"What if I don't want to make the Volturi my main concern?"

"Then you are going to have some problems, and not just with Aro." Felix's look told her quite clearly where his loyalties lie.

Alice nodded grimly. Somehow she knew this was not going to end well.

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Arriving back at Volterra Castle, Alice headed straight to her room, anxious to take a shower and freshen up. She kept thinking about her visions of Jasper and wanted to roam the city to see if she could find him.

Setting her bag on the gargoyle bed, she went to the standing wardrobe, opening the doors. To her shock, she found Celine, hiding like child underneath her dresses, both of them jumping at the sight of each other.

"Celine?"

"Alice." Celine stood up and threw her arms around her. "I'm so glad you're back. It's been terrifying."

Alice helped her to the bedroom chair, smoothing back her dirty hair. The girl reeked of body odor, as if she hadn't showered since she left. "You poor thing. You haven't been hiding in here the whole time, have you?"

"Yes, I think it's better if they forgot about me."

"But how do you eat."

"I haven't. I'm so hungry. I only run water in the bathroom when someone was taking a shower."

"Oh my gosh, let me see if I find you something." Sorting through her purse, Alice handed the girl two packs of peanuts she got on the flight, which Celine gobbled them up. Now Alice felt guilty. Not once on her trip had she thought about the girl. "I'll tell you what. We'll go out and I'll buy you diner."

"But won't they stop us?"

"Of course not. You're my assistant. Now go take a shower."

"But…"

"No buts," Alice said, ushering the girl into the bathroom, pulling out some fresh fluffy towels. The bathroom was all creamy white with gold trim and sparkling faucets. An old water basin and pitcher with crackled glaze decorated the counter. "I'll pick out a dress for you."

"Alice, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Celine you must eat. Now get ready." Alice closed the door and went back the wardrobe, pulling out two of her favorite sundresses. Celine was a bit taller than her, so the dress would be short on Celine, but with the cut, Alice decided it would look fine.

When Celine was dressed and combed, looking much better, Alice gave her an apple she snitched from one of the trees in the courtyard.

"Eat slowly," Alice ordered, whisking her out the door.

"You don't know how grateful I am to you. I owe you my life."

"Think nothing of it," Alice soothed, trying to figure out the best way out of there.

In the hall, they encountered Marcus, who glanced their way. "Lovely to see you, Miss Alice, and you…" he paused, staring at Celine, snapping his fingers. "I'm sorry my dear, I don't recall your name."

"Celine" Alice said, smiling. "Master Aro has given me my own new assistant. Isn't that great?"

"Well yes, I suppose it is. He's never given me an assistant."

"You should ask him for one. I'm sure he would be happy to accommodate you."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"Say Marcus, you wouldn't happen to know a short cut out of here." Alice asked, using her best helpless Southern bell routine. "Celine is starving, and I don't like walking on all this cement, It's hard on my heels, if you know what I mean."

"Well, you could cut through the garden. I think I might even have a key I can give you for the gate." Marcus dug through his pockets for several minutes, sorting through a giant ring of skeleton keys until finally he came up with the right one. "I think this is it."

"Why thank you. You're a doll." Alice smiled and reached up to kiss his check.

Marcus grinned. "No, my dear, thank you. You're such a lovely thing. No wonder Aro covets you so." Waving at her, he turned the corner and left them, his eyes glazed over.

"Master Marcus is so different," Celine whispered. "Can vampires do drugs?"

Alice put her finger to her lips. "Shsssh, he can hear you. Vampires have extremely good hearing."

Celine blanched.

Leading Celine down the back stairs, Alice found the walled garden through two double glass doors. Trestles of brilliant red roses decorated the pathway, and there was a giant chessboard made of black and white marble smack in the middle.

This must be the sculpture Felix told her about, Alice thought, recognizing Felix immediately as a grim-faced knight. Aro was a white marble King, sitting majestically on a throne, adorned with a breastplate and mace, rich folds of fabric falling at his feet. In some ways he looked strikingly different. His expression was so fierce, so focused. Alice almost felt like she should kneel to him.

Celine shivered. "Doesn't this place seem haunted to you. Like the chess pieces might spring to life."

"I don't know. I've never seen a ghost," Alice said.

Locating the wrought iron gate, Alice raced over to it, surprised when the key Marcus gave her actually worked. "We're free."

Celine gave a huge sigh of relief. "I never thought I'd get out of there."

Alice started digging through her purse, counting the euros in her wallet. "There's a restaurant around the corner. I remember seeing it when I came in. We'll go there."

Celine stopped her, placing her hand on hers. "But Alice, I can wait to eat. Maybe if you could lend me some money for a hotel. I promise I'm good for it. I would mail it to you once I get home."

"Celine, sweetheart, you can't go to a hotel. I know you think they've forgotten about you, but they haven't. They will come looking for you."

Celine bowed her head, tears coming to her eyes. "They're going to kill me, aren't they?"

Alice shook her head, almost wanting to cry too, putting her arm around her shoulder. "No, I'm going to take care of you. I promise. Please, trust me."

Dejectedly Celine nodded, letting Alice guide her down the cobblestone street.

On the edges of town, the sun was setting, the sky bathed in orange. That's when Alice saw him, a silhouette standing at the end of the street, his shoulders slumped and his expression sad.

"Hi Alice," Jasper whispered, his voice only loud enough for her to hear.

"Hello," she whispered back.

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	9. Sunset Grill

**Chapter 9**

Normally, Alice would have run into Jasper's arms, but something stopped her this time. Something in his eyes. She had hurt him. She hated herself for that. "Celine, I would like you to meet my husband," she said, walking to meet him, holding the girl's hand.

Jasper approached cautiously, his lips pressed together. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Celine," he said smoothly, giving her a half smile.

Celine's eyes big, her mouth hanging open. "Hello there," she gasped, obviously overwhelmed by Jasper's good looks.

"It's great to see you," Alice said, kissing his cheek. "Celine needs to grab something to eat or I think she may pass out." She pointed to a restaurant two blocks away.

"Of course," Jasper said, leading the way, walking with them in silence.

Already the tension between them was so thick, Alice couldn't stand it. _Please forgive me._

Stepping inside the _ristorante_, Alice looked around. The place was small with whitewashed walls, arched doorways, red and white tablecloths, and a frosted glass votive on every table. The smell of fresh bread, basil, fennel and tomato sauce lingered from the kitchen. There were three other couples and a family who turned to glance at them.

"Posso aiutarla?" A server asked.

"Si" Alice said, stumbling over the little Italian she knew, trying to show they wanted to eat.

Gently, Celine took over, speaking fluent Italian, advising the server they would like a table. Once seated, Celine almost teared up, frantically giggling. "I'm so hungry. Everything looks so good. I can't believe this."

Alice warmly squeezed her hand. "Just take it slow."

"Yes, yes," Celine said.

Jasper's eyes were very dark, and he seemed antsy, tapping his fingers on his thigh, finally standing. "Please forgive me ladies, but I have something I must attend to."

Alice knew what was wrong. He hadn't eaten and sitting with Celine was too much.

"Meet me later," he told her, handing her a matchbook from a nearby hotel with his room number written on it.

Alice nodded and watched him go, a lump in her throat. "Order anything you want, Celine. I'll just pretend to have a salad."

Celine nodded, reaching out to touch her hand. "Thank you so much. I hope everything works out."

_It won't_, Alice thought. But just like Aro, she also had an unnatural smile, which she used quite often, using it now on Celine. "So tell me, what's it like growing up in the Florida Keys?"

As Celine began to speak, Alice decided she would ask Jasper to sneak Celine out of Volterra, but then an immediate vision flashed before her eyes of Aro ripping off Jasper's head. Instantly she changed her mind, glancing out the window, watching Jasper disappear down the street.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Later on that night, Alice tucked Celine in bed and watched her fall asleep, before sneaking out again through the garden. On her way to the gate, she stopped one more time to gaze at the White King, still stunned at how different Aro looked. What was it that Aro had said? That he was morphing into a fiend the older he got, like the purebloods. That's what probably caused his unsettling laugh and his odd mannerisms. And somehow it made her sad, like she would have liked to know the vampire he was two millenniums ago.

Turning away, she unlocked the gate and slipped down the street. The town was dead at this time of night, the walled streets curving around like a maze. Alice ran for a bit, making her way into the Palazzo del Priori, heading further down finally spotting Jasper's hotel. Quietly she made her way into the lobby, taking the stairs.

Jasper opened the door before she even had a chance to knock, pulling her inside the room into his arms.

Kissing him, she took in the scent, touching his face as they moved toward the bed, their movements a study of practice more than passion. It had always been this way for them. No matter how much they tried.

Jasper studied her, frowning at her red eyes, running his finger over the bridge of her nose. "What happened?"

Alice laughed. "My nose got bit off. Aro swears up and down the line will fade, but right now I know I look pretty weird."

He caressed her cheek. "What do you mean, bit off?"

Alice explained the purebloods.

Jasper shook his head, "I've never seen one those in my life, and you were attacked by a pack of them. I suppose anything can be living in the Gotham sewers. I still can't believe you joined the Volturi."

"It was kind of an impulse."

"To get away from him."

"Yes."

Jasper grabbed her chin. "I would have protected you," he scolded.

"I had visions of him killing you. After everything you've done for me. I couldn't let that happen too."

"I'm not that easy to kill."

Alice gazed at the bite scars that ran up and down his forearms. "Everyone can be killed."

They were lying down now, half on the bed, half off, face to face. He was her best friend in the whole world. There was nothing she wouldn't do for him. If she could give him the full love he deserved, nothing would make her leave his side. "I do love you, you know."

Jasper sighed. "I know. We always knew this would happen though. That one of us would leave."

Alice moved up close, squeezing him tight. "I've been so unfair."

He ran his fingers through her hair. "No you weren't. We always knew where we stood with each other. We aren't mates, even though we tell everybody that. We love each other, but we've never been 'in' love with each other."

"You gave up human blood for me."

"Alice, I didn't have anywhere else to go. I didn't want to go back to Maria. Life with the Olympia coven has been..." he searched for a word, "good."

"But you're bored. You hate being restricted."

"I do, but it hasn't been bad. After all the blood and slaughter I've seen, I needed a break. You gave me that. I'll always be grateful."

That had been Alice's original vision. She had deeply needed a friend, someone she could count on. Someone who was as sick of blood and murder as she was. He was looking for a place away from the horror. Her first words to him in the café were. "Jasper Whitlock, we are going to be great friends."

They had been together ever since. There was always an emptiness though. A nagging knowledge that Jasper would always love Maria more than her, no matter how much he was grateful to her or how much he felt used. There was also the knowledge that she was barren, destroyed by Gwynplaine, even when she could only remember bits and pieces of him.

Now gazing into Jasper's handsome face, she felt cheated, like life had played a sick joke on them. Why couldn't they be enough for each other? Why couldn't they make it work? They both wanted that. Angry, she kissed him, mustering up as much passion as she could, wrapping her leg around his thigh, her body molding into his.

Jasper kissed her back, his moves automatic, running his hands down her back. He always waited for her. Never going beyond what she offered, as if he was always trying to please her, instead of pleasing himself. It drove her crazy, because she always tried to do the same thing. This could be the last night they had with each other and still he hesitated. Reaching out she unbuttoned his shirt. That's when his hands finally came up and unclipped her bra.

"Tonight don't be careful," she whispered. "Tonight I want it rough. Punish me for leaving you." Tears filled her eyes.

A look of panic shadowed his face. Cupping her face between his hands, he kissed her. "Alice, don't you know I can't do that. I can't hurt you. You've been hurt enough."

She turned away, closing her eyes to hide the tears. "I'm sorry. Forget I said that. Let's just make love." Silently, she unbuttoned her blouse.

Jasper stood up, pulling down the covers, turning off the lamp. They always made love in the dark. It was too revealing to look into each other's eyes.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Next morning, Alice stayed with Jasper the whole day, watching television in his room. They talked little, just keeping each other company before they finally said goodbye.

"Are you sure you don't want to join the Volturi?" she pleaded, reaching for his hand. "Aro would love to have an empath."

"No way. I hate being told what to do, you know that, especially from a bunch of old pompous vampires who felt it was their sovereign right to make a bunch of rules. You know you're going to have your work cut out for you."

"Yes," Alice sighed. Somehow she knew he'd never join, at least not for her. He was done following her. "Where do you plan to go?" _Back to Maria?_

"I think I'm going to head up to Alaska. Something about having a place go night for days at a time sounds nice. Lots of wildlife."

"Lots of shapeshifters."

"Yeah, but they're not so bad as long as you leave them alone."

"They stink."

Jasper laughed. "They sure do. At least I'll know they're coming."

When the sun finally set, Alice fluffed her hair and tied her shoes, preparing to leave. A part of her felt like it was dying, but then another part was relieved to have this over. "Look me up in a hundred years"

Jasper nodded, standing up to kiss her goodbye.

Feeling the automatic press of his lips, she realized Aro had been right. She had been just wasting time. The ancient vampire knew her better than she did herself. Wiping away a tear, she slipped out into the night and headed back to the castle. She turned to wave goodbye one last time, but Jasper had already closed the door.

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In the distance Jane could hear ocean and maybe a car. They were in an abandoned boat house with a broken window. Sunshine bled onto the floor.

"Guess where we are?" the Joker mused.

Jane had no idea, her mind still spinning. Now that Demetri was no longer preoccupied, the Joker was hitting her up again, scattering her thoughts.

Standing up, she looked out the window. The sand was as white as Rabbit Beach in Lampedusa and the water was so light it was almost green. A sign in the grass said, _Do Not Pick or Destroy Sea Oats._ "We went south."

"We sure the hell did. What was I thinking?" The Joker laughed. "Florida panhandle, I think. It's been a while since I've been down here. Last time I saw this place, Hurricane Juan came through and tore up the whole strip. Should have seen it."

Jane frowned. "We're going to have to wait until nighttime before we can leave."

"Not necessarily." Unzipping his duffle bag, the Joker started pulling things out: scarves, a rubber nose, two grenades, a sawed off shotgun and a make-up kit. "I think it's time you took on another persona. Something colorful, you know festive. What was the name of that podunk town you grew up in?"

"Port Quin. It's in Cornwall. Although it was just Quin when I grew up. They tried to burn me as a witch."

"Smart people, but I suppose that made you Jane of Quin."

Jane shrugged.

The Joker licked his lips, pulling out a small tin of clown white, reaching out to dab it on her nose. "Well now, you're going to be Harley Quinn. Get it? It's a play on words."

Jane pushed his hand away. "I don't want to dress up like a clown," she grumped, smoothing out her short black skirt.

"Jane, Jane, Jane, I swear you've got noooo imagination, and let me tell you why. With make-up on, people can't see the sparkles. In fact, they can't see shit. And if a little wipes off, they just think its body glitter or something. You don't even have to wear contacts, because people will think it's part of the costume of demented clown. You can walk the beach."

Jane perked up. All her vampire life she wanted to walk in the sun. "Do you have a mirror?"

The Joker nodded, holding up a small square mirror covered in make-up smudges.

Grabbing it, she wiped it off with one of his scarves. "Here let me do it."

"Knock yourself out, girl."

Picking up the tin, Jane spread the white make-up over her face and arms, darkening the circles around her eyes with kohl. She then blackened her lips, putting little curls on the corners.

"What should I do with my hair?" she said, annoyed at all the tangles, pulling out a comb. "Do you have any suggestions?"

The Joker just chuckled, leaning back against the some old life vests along the wall, waving his hand. "Whatever you want."

Wrinkling her nose, she decided on two ponytails, placing them both high on her head, tying them with ribbons. They looked like floppy ears, whipping them around. "All I need now is a red dress and maybe a long hat with a bell on the end."

The Joker gave a loud hoot. "Picky, picky."

"Do we have time to shop?"

"Ah what the hell. Let's head up to the strip. I'm sure they got some shops up there. We can grab us a bite to eat." He raised his eyebrows and grinned.

Jane nodded in agreement, following him outside. Holding up her hands to the sun, she smiled, thrilled they didn't sparkle. If only she had known about this before. "I want to go everywhere, see everything. Let's do it, Mr. J."

"Take it from me, this won't be your ticket to everywhere. People will be looking at you like you're a nut job."

"But at least they won't see what we really are."

"This is true." The Joker took off his purple coat, draping it over his shoulder, offering his arm.

Jane wrapped her hand around his cuff, turning to kiss him, but stopped herself. The Joker was always so moody sometimes he pushed her away, which hurt. Already she knew she was in love with him, a dizzy giddiness filling her chest. What was she going to do if he didn't feel the same?

At least today he was happy, humming a tune, seductively singing in her ear.

_Harley, Harley_

_Let's go down to the Sunset Grill  
>We can watch the working girls go by<br>Watch the "basket people" walk around and mumble  
>And stare out at the auburn sky<br>There's an old man there from the Old World  
>To him, it's all the same<br>Calls all his customers by name_

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**At first I thought it was weird having it become night for Alice and Jasper and then be day for the Joker and Jane, but then I realized with the time difference that wouldn't be weird at all. Florida time is way behind Italy.**

**The song is _Sunset Grill_ by Don Henley. I figured the Joker would sing an old song since he's an old vampire. Hurricane Juan hit in 1985 which is about the same time _Sunset Grill_ was released. Of course, I couldn't help but think the tone vaguely captures Alice and Jasper's friendship.**


	10. Sulpicia

**Chapter 10**

_I want to love but it comes out wrong  
>I want to live but I don't belong<br>I close my eyes and I see  
>Blood and roses<em>

_Blood and Roses –The Smitherines _

_''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''_

That night when Alice got back to the castle, she found a chain around the garden gate with a big padlock.

_They locked me out?_

Of course, she could just bust the chain, but if she did that, everyone would know it was her. Obviously they already knew she was cutting through the garden. Was this their way of saying they wanted her to go through the front door?

_Go to hell, Demetri._

Why did everybody have to make things so difficult? Already she was in a grim mood, having said goodbye to Jasper. This was not helping.

Furious, Alice started looking for another way in. Above her was a turret that she could climb, but they would see her with all the moonlight, not to mention hear her.

Back along the other side of the wall was an old medieval drainage ditch with a tiny stream of water going through it; the faint trickle barely audible with the wind. Alice decided to check it out, spotting an old metal grate down below the foundation of the castle. Making her way down the smooth limestone embankment, her feet sliding on stray pebbles, she jumped up on cement spout in front of the grate and peeked inside. The sewage tunnel was pitch black, but she knew it had to lead into the castle.

At first she hesitated. _Don't go in there_, _idiot._ But then she changed her mind. _Why not? What the hell. _It was so absurd, it made her laugh.

The old grate was rusted and almost three feet in diameter. Alice had trouble moving it, even with all her vampire strength. Dust and iron oxide flaked around from her fingers when she touched it, coating her hair and clothes in orangey-red. Her best sandals and sun dress were ruined, but she didn't care, getting down on her hands and knees, crawling into the tunnel, taking a minute to pull the grate back into place. Inside the duct it smelled moldy and sour, like something died. A small trickle of black water ran down underneath her shins, soaking her skirt in mud.

_I'm definitely not dressed for this._ But Alice refused to stop now. She had to see where this led. Crypts had a strange way of fascinating vampires. She had discovered that years ago in New Orleans when she met Gertie and Bernice, the two lovers who both shared a coffin inside a mausoleum. She could just imagine them now doing the same thing, only texting each other with smart phones. They couldn't help it. Death and decay just beckoned to them. Alice even considered joining them.

_What the hell was wrong with me? _

Climbing into the darkness, Alice listened to the pattering of little animals, mice most likely, scurrying away. Cobwebs brushed her cheeks and silt and sand dug into her bare knees. A cricket crawled over her leg. Eventually she was in utter pitch black, unable to even see her hand.

To her surprise, she liked it, as if finally embracing her macabre nature.

Abruptly though, the tunnel ended, opening up into a larger area, the smooth limestone turning into cobble stone floors. Alice dug through her purse, pulling out her old car keys, and clicked on her tiny blue flashlight key chain. It glowed like a fairy light in the dark.

Sure enough, she was now in an old passage way, old metal sconces hanging from the walls. Alice stood up and started walking, the place like a maze. Afraid of getting lost, she pulled out a package of Kleenex and started ripping off pieces, leaving a trail like bread crumbs. It didn't take long though to realize where she was. These passages were catacombs.

There was no way Volturi could burn all the bodies of their victims. Smoke and ash would fill the streets of Volterra, so they buried the bodies below the castle, on shelves and in cubbyholes, thousands of them, still dressed in their clothes and finery, all threadbare and ash. Each row showed another decade, the clothing betraying their age: stiff corsets, top hats, beaded handbags, walking canes, andPerugia shoes. The epic scale of death was overwhelming.

Funny how vampirism did not discriminate. Every kind of human was in here: every nationality, every race, every age, every size, every strata and every walk of life. All of them dead. And all of them just disappeared, their loved ones never knowing what happened to them.

And here she was, a vampire walking among them. The place repulsed her and made her feel at home at the same time.

_I should be one of them._

But then Alice heard a noise. A soft tapping, like sandals on stone. Light from a candle, flickered through the body filled shelves. There was a swish of shirts and little bells, like a charm bracelet, ringing with each footstep.

_Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes  
>And she shall have music wherever she goes<em>

Alice froze. She was definitely not alone

The woman turned the corner, drifting into the passage like a ghost, her long, wavy, black hair falling down her back, and her eyes blood red. Dressed in crimson and goldPunjabi pants, a short sleeved chemise and a black velvet vest, she looked like harem dancer, little anklets and bells encircling her feet.

Smoking candle wax bled over her fingers. And she smiled like Aro.

That's when Alice knew she was looking at Sulpicia.

"Hello," Alice said.

Sulpicia's dark eyebrows lifted and she floated toward her, silent, yet animated, studying her, touching Alice's hair and her dress.

Alice instinctively stood still, remembering how the patients in the hospital would sometimes get violent for no reason.

Sulpicia was calm though, pulling her into the passage, placing her hands around her waist. She set her candle down and started to sway back and forth, her eyes half-lidded.

Alice had no idea what the beautiful vampire wanted, until it dawned on her. Sulpicia wanted to dance, twirling her around to a melody only she could hear.

They danced a slow waltz. Sulpicia a little bit taller than her, very graceful, Alice stumbling, wondering how she would get out of this. Until Sulpicia, moving lightning fast, bit her.

"Ow!" Alice ducked away. "Believe me, you don't want to drink me. It'll burn your tongue and taste nasty. I'm a vampire, like you."

Sulpicia shrugged, lunging for her again, Alice skidding away, finally giving up.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

Sulpicia pointed to her throat and opened her month, making a gagging noise.

"You can't speak."

Sulpicia shook her head and then laughed, trying to pull Alice into another dance.

"No…no dancing…stop it. You don't like to take no for an answer, do you? So where's Corin? Isn't she supposed to be with you?" Alice managed to stay just out of Sulpicia's reach, but the chase was ridiculous, Sulpicia giggling, grabbing her skirt.

Alice decided to change the subject. "So tell me, Sulpicia, how do you keep Master Aro from reading your mind?"

Sulpicia pointed to Alice's purse, scribbling with her hand like she needed a pen.

Alice dug out one of her notepads, handing her a pencil. _Watch her stab me in the jugular with it._

Sulpicia cocked her head, scrunching her face up in an impish smile, and then she wrote: _**Devi baciarlo**__._

"Yeah…unfortunately my Italian is not good. Could you possibly translate?"

Sulpicia laughed and kissed the tips of her fingers.

"Kiss? Oh yeah, _baci_ means 'kiss' doesn't it?"

Sulpicia nodded, writing something else.

_**Sesso**_

Alice's eyes widened. She knew exactly what that meant. _Sex_. Was Sulpicia saying she should have sex with Aro? "Okay, that was completely unhelpful."

Sulpicia shrugged.

"Is there another way? One that isn't quite so, you know ... _so_ _intimate_."

"No, I'm afraid not, my dear." Aro's voice echoed from behind her.

Alice nearly jumped through the ceiling, whipping around. _When the hell did he get here? _"Master, you're…"

"Hello, Alice. It's so good to see you keeping Picia company. Odd though that you would come this way. Is the front gate distasteful to you?"

"No, I was just…you know…going for a walk."

"Ah, I see. You're one of _those_ vampires that enjoy lurking in crypts. I would have never guessed. Should we move your room down here?" Aro's voice was like honey, but his gaze was hard, taking his wife's hand, looking down at the notepad. "But to answer your question, no, there is no other way for you to block my telepathy, unless you have a shield like Signora Cullen…_or Timur_." He said the last name with distaste. "However, I do tend to turn off my abilities when I make love, simply because it's somewhat off putting to see one's self during coitus. I'm sure you can imagine."

"I see. That's good to know." Alice wanted to disappear into the floor. Of all the people she did not want to run into tonight, Aro had to be at the top of the list. She had to admit though, all this talk of sex was making her curious. Did Aro still make love to Sulpicia? _ Why am I even thinking about this_? _It's none of my business? _Felix was right, she _was_ a gossip monger.

Aro turned to his wife, "What am I going to do with you, Cara mia? Walking in the catacombs again. Tsk tsk, look at you, you're a mess."

Sulpicia laughed and kissed him, playfully brushing dust off his sleeve.

"Yes, now I'm a mess now too. You need to stop coming down here," he scolded, walking her down the corridor. "Let's go get you cleaned up, shall we?"

Sulpicia nodded, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Alice followed from a distance, watching them with trepidation. She planned on ditching them at the stairs, but when they got to the elevator, Aro insisted Alice accompany them up the tower.

"You have such a wonderful rapport with her," he murmured.

Alice inwardly cringed, outwardly nodding and smiling.

When they got to the top, a tall, slender vampire woman came running out to them, her dark hair pulled back into a bun. "Oh thank the Gods, you found her. I'm so relieved. I'm so sorry, Padrone. I don't know how she slipped out?"

"You need to pay better attention, Corin." Aro's voice was curt, his body stiff. "She could have escaped out into street. And you know what happened last time with that little boy."

Corin bowed her head. "I promise it will never happen again."

"That's what you said _last time_."

"Please forgive me, I-"

Aro held up his hand. "Go attend to Athenodora. We'll discuss this later."

"Yes, Padrone." Corin nervously smoothed back her hair and then disappeared down the hall.

Alice grimaced, wondering what Aro was going to do to her.

Sulpicia shook her head adamantly, pointed at herself, insisting her escape was all her fault not Corin's.

But Aro just frowned and brushed her away. "You needn't worry, Picia. I'm not going to wring her neck, just talk to her. I'm very displeased though."

Sulpicia grabbed his shoulder, still arguing.

"You should have thought of that before taking off," he told her, before unlocking two double doors, leading his wife into a large sitting room, indicating he wanted Alice to follow.

The room was lush with marble tiled floors, expensive throw rugs, and hand-carved mahogany furniture with damask upholstery. All of it in pink and gray, the colors giving the room a breezy look, throw pillows everywhere.

Aro stepped into the bathroom, flipping on the light. He turned on the faucet for a massive marble bathtub and then took off his coat, rolling up his sleeves. "It's time for your bath, my love. You look like street urchin, although you're not quite as bad as Alice." He eyed Alice through the mirror.

Alice caught her dirt covered reflection and sighed. "I probably should go take a shower."

"No I want you to stay," Aro insisted.

_Why?_ God he drove her nuts. Wanting to give Sulpicia privacy, Alice tried not to watch them, retreating behind the sofa, but she couldn't help it. She was curious and the door was wide open.

Aro stripped his wife gracefully, kneeling down to pull off her sandals, unclasping her anklets. Standing up, he unbuttoned her vest.

Sulpicia snuggled close to him, loosening his tie, nuzzling his neck. She clearly wanted to bite him, which he let her do, cradling her like a child, petting her hair.

The way he fed her was sweet and caring, like he truly loved her. Yet Alice could tell he looked at this as a duty more than something he wanted to do. "Could you come here and help me bathe her," he told Alice.

Alice groaned, stepping into the bathroom.

Sulpicia was half dressed now, her breasts bare, waving to Alice, still drinking from Aro's neck. There were vivid pink scratches all over her stomach and torso. She almost looked like she had been birched, but the stripes were too even and too close together, like a claw.

Aro gently pried Sulpicia's mouth from his throat and quickly removed the rest of her clothes. "That's enough blood for now. I see you've been scratching yourself again," he chided, helping her into the bubble bath. He was so tidy, scooping up her clothes and throwing them in the hamper. "Alice, would you please wash her hair."

Alice reluctantly grabbed the spray nozzle and the bottle of shampoo. It wasn't like she hadn't seen anybody be bathed before. She had, several times. It just reminded her so much of the hospital and memories she wanted to forget.

Sulpicia smiled and held her head back as if waiting to be pampered.

"As you can see," Aro said, grabbing a sponge, pointing to a nasty scratch. "My wife has a bad habit of hurting herself. I couldn't help but notice you have the same kind of scars."

Alice froze, her mouth dry. _Don't ask me that, damn it. _ She didn't even have to ask which scars he was talking about. She knew all too well the faint lines that were etched into her forearms_. _"Yeah, what about it?"

"Why did you do it?"

Alice wanted to throw something at him, but his gaze was so earnest, so empathetic.

Sulpicia too, touching Alice's arm, her body poised, as if Alice's answer held the secrets of the universe.

Normally, Alice would have said she didn't remember. But that wasn't true. At least not anymore, because slowly, everything was coming back to her, the memories almost too hideous to look at, like lifting the bandage of an ugly wound.

They had been on a train. Her sharp fingernails slashing at her forearms over and over until her skin was shredded, Gwynplaine rolling his eyes. He had just slaughtered all the passengers because the ticket taker told him the train didn't accept _circus_ _freaks_.

"When I did this, I hated myself," Alice said, clasping her fingers together. "I felt like the world was collapsing, and the only way to stop the pressure was to slice open my skin."

Sulpicia's eyebrows furrowed and she clasped her hand, nodding in agreement, holding her palm to her cheek.

"Picia says you're now sisters," Aro said, "because you share the same pain."

Alice smiled, warmly clasping Sulpicia's hand.

But then everything changed. Sulpicia's body became stiff and she turned her head. Without warning she yanked Alice forward, almost knocking her into the tub and then tried to scratch her eyes out.

Aro stopped her, grabbing Sulpicia's wrist, right before she slashed Alice's face. "You will not hurt her," he commanded.

Sulpicia continued to lunge for her, writhing and hissing in Aro's grasp, water and soap sloshing on the floor.

"Alice, please hand me that red vial in the top cabinet," Aro said. His voice was calm, but he was clearly struggling, his body halfway in the tub. Holding both her hands above her head, he managed to get a hold of both her wrists in a single grip.

Alice jumped to get the bottle, holding it out for him.

"You will drink this," Aro ordered, holding the vial up to Sulpicia's lips.

Sulpicia stubbornly shook her head.

His eyes narrowed. "You will."

Trying to bite him, Sulpicia snapped her teeth.

Aro shoved her back up against the side of the tube, twisting her arms above her. "You're forcing me to take a firm hand with you."

Alice winced, remembering when Aro had used those same exact words on her.

Sulpicia's eyes flashed in anger, but then she slumped, finally agreeing.

Aro let go of her, holding the vial up to her lips. "Good girl," he murmured, watching her drink.

In less than a minute, his wife's eyes became glassy and she leaned back.

Aro eased her into the water. "You may wash her hair now," he said.

Alice nodded, biting her bottom lip. "What did you give her?"

"Blood laced with lead."

"Lead."

"Yes, it's quite a sedative for vampires."

Alice's eyes widened. "I'll have to remember that," she said, dampening Sulpicia's hair, pulling out the shampoo. Glancing at Aro, she noticed his jaw looked like it was permanently clenched.

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**For the life of me, I'm not quite sure why I had such problems with this chapter. I think because in many ways it's kind of dark, and I wanted to soften the edges. **


	11. Talk of Death

**Chapter 11**

As soon as Sulpicia was washed, combed and dressed in fresh clothes, Aro led his drugged wife to a spacious atrium, his arm cradled around her, speaking sweet words. "Look here, my darling, what a splendid view you will have when the sun comes up."

Sulpicia looked blankly out into space.

Alice followed in toe, still a bit shaken, remembering the attack. Looking around, she decided the atrium was much different than the rest of the castle. All the plants and stained glass dragonflies gave the place a vibrancy that spoke only of the woman who inhabited it. There was a piano in the corner, a brass umbrella stand filled with blue-green peacock feathers and a chaise longue swathed in pillows. Unquestionably though, the most striking feature was the walls. Sulpicia had written all over them with a big blue marker, the letters all in Greek, no inch of white space uncovered. What was she writing? _See what my power-hungry, manipulative, asshole of a husband did to me._

But God, she had to quit thinking this. Aro would be reading her mind any second.

Placing Sulpicia in the chair, Aro bent over to give his wife a kiss, but she turned away, her back stiff.

"Ah, you're angry with me," he said, brushing a stray curl of black hair back over her ear. "But don't you know, you brought this on yourself, Cara." He kissed the top of her head. "I shall be back to check on you later."

Sulpicia ignored him, her body completely still.

Alice thought the whole thing absurd. _What happened to make Sulpicia like this? Was it just Aro, or did the strain of being a vampire become too much?_ _Will I be like this too in a couple thousand years?_ Anxious to leave, she inched back toward the door.

"Wait," Aro commanded. "I need to talk to you. I'll walk you to the elevator."

Alice clenched her fists and nodded.

Calling a servant girl in to keep an eye on his wife, Aro took Alice's arm, and escorted her down the hall, neither of them speaking. When the elevator doors closed, he immediately held out his hand, demanding her thoughts.

Alice didn't want to touch him, deciding instead to try evasive maneuvers. "Did I do something wrong that made her want to attack me?"

Aro looked up at her surprised and then shook his head. "No, it wasn't you. It's her. She just remembered that you were a vampire and all vampires are Devil's spawn. She's like that. I should have warned you."

"Well I'm glad you stopped her from slashing my face."

"Ah my dear, I couldn't allow you to be attacked again. Not with your nose finally healing."

Alice touched her face. "Is the line almost gone?"

"I can't tell with all the rust and dirt on your face. But give it a couple of days. I'm sure you'll be fine." Again he held out his hand, his eyebrows lifted.

Alice clasped her hands together. "Has Sulpicia always been mute?"

Aro's eyes narrowed and he sighed, his voice dropping an octave. "No. About a hundred-fifty years ago, I removed her vocal cords."

Alice gasped. "You took away her ability to speak. But why? That's horrible."

Aro rubbed his eyes, pushing his hair back. "Alice, I've had a very trying night. Are you going to give me your hand or what?"

"Fine," she snapped, reluctantly placing her palm in his, gritting her teeth.

Aro's clasped her fingers firmly and his eyes glazed over. "I see you ended your relationship with Jasper…that's good. But now you have Celine hiding in your bedroom. You have made a pet of her," he pursed his lips, letting go of her hand. "I cannot allow that."

"She's not a pet. She's just scared."

"You should not be friending her. Every human that walks into this castle is marked for death. She's already dead. You must see that. If you develop an attachment to her it will only make things harder…harder for _you_."

"I need an assistant."

"That's not going to happen. I insist you return Celine to the East wing and have Heidi place her."

"Aro, please I-"

Aro shushed her, touching her mouth with the tip of his finger. "There can be no compromise on this. You will return Celine. I would also appreciate it if you would go through the front door. You do know you left the garden gate unlocked."

Alice's mouth fell open. "That's not possible. I remember locking it. Read my mind again." She held up her hand. "You'll see."

"My dear, I'm not going to split hairs on this. I'm just telling you that you can't be so careless. People off the street like to wander in here and then we have to kill them. And then kill their families, and then make it look like an accident. It's all very tiresome."

Alice shook her head, refusing to believe it.

Aro gently touched her chin. "Alice, are we clear on this?"

"Yes, _Master_," she said, almost spitting out the last word, pushing his hand away. Pressing the elevator button a couple more times for her floor, she exhaled when the doors finally opened.

Aro had no intention though of letting her get off. Grabbing her arm, he made her stay with him until they exited on the lower floor. "In my office," he said, his body rigid

Now Alice was a little panicked. Would he punish her like Chelsea? The realization terrified her, but her pride refused to let her back down.

Walking down the hall, they passed Demetri, who smirked at her.

_Asshole._

Aro turned on the lights when they entered his office, his shoes tapping on the cold marble, leading her over by the window. He sat her down in a chair and leaned back against his desk, his hands clasped together. "We need to talk, my dear."

"Fine, let's talk," she grumbled. She knew she should show more deference, but it just galled her too much to do that.

"I must admit, I'm not used to having all these ill thoughts about me coming from one of my guards. You have some pretty heinous opinions. While I want to give you some privacy, and I want you to feel free to have your own thoughts, this must be addressed."

"Are you joking? How can anyone have their own thoughts here?"

"I realize you feel _violated_, but you must change your point of view. Think of our coven as being a world with no lies, no deception and no intrigue. We have to be honest with each other. I realize you're not always going to agree with me, or have a high opinion. We can at least try to meet at the center, can't we?"

Alice scoffed. _No deception. No lies. Bullshit Aro._ She had heard hundreds of rumors over the years about Aro murdering his own sister. All the while keeping this secret from Marcus.

Aro frowned, picking up a crystal ball paperweight off his desk, shaking the confetti inside. "When I was thirty-three," he said thoughtfully. "I was bludgeoned over the head when a ship's mast fell on top of me during a battle. I was out for five days with a severe concussion. When I finally recovered, I discovered I was a tactile telepath. However, this new power brought me no joy. I discovered my wife was having an affair and my dearest and oldest friend was plotting against me. It was all very depressing, but I've learned to live with people's negative thoughts. And of course when I turned into a vampire, my powers quadrupled. My knowledge of the darkness inside people's hearts has in many ways been a curse."

_Then quit reading people's minds_, Alice wanted to say, but she kept her mouth shut, letting him speak.

"I want you to bring forth your accusations of me, instead of just thinking them. I want to get this out in the open. You asked me why I removed Sulpicia's vocal cords. Well I'll tell you. I thought it was the kindest way." Aro stood up and began to pace. "Picia in her madness had starting screaming day and night, _every night_, and scratching herself. She had a powerful voice too that the whole town of Volterra could hear. The polizia came to our door and asked what was wrong. I had to silence her. I've always known that I would eventually have to end my wife's existence, but," his voice cracked, "that's not always easy to do when you love someone."

"So you cut out her vocal cords?"

"I did. But I made sure she felt no pain. She was unconscious, and I was quite careful, placing her vocal cords in silicone solution so I could always put them back if she got better. It actually turned out to be a blessing, because without her voice, Picia didn't get so worked up."

"I see."

"No you don't. You look at me like I torture my wife, but you don't realize, _I love her_. That's why I asked you to come up with us tonight. She responded so well to you until she-"

"Tried to rip my face off. Believe me, I understand." Alice stood up. "Thank you for telling me. You have a good night"

"My dear girl, sit back down. I'm not done." Aro pointed to the chair. "Don't you have something else you want to ask me? Something that Felix told you?"

"Look it's none of my business."

"No it isn't, but it's preying on your mind. You might as well ask about it, or are you too much of a coward?"

Alice stiffened. "Alright, don't you think your punishment for Chelsea was a little barbaric and excessive?"

"No I don't." Aro leaned back. "I thought I was actually rather lenient, considering the penalty is usually being torn to shreds and set on fire. Chelsea was making a power play and she lost."

"I always thought you and Chelsea had a special relationship."

"We do. I give her more benefits than anyone else in the guard. But her gift isn't as powerful as you might think. Mostly what she does is increase the oxytocin in our brains. This intensifies our attachment for each other. We are like a family. Even so, I think our Coven would still be a cohesive unit without her.

"However," he continued. "Jane has always been a problem. She's like a daughter to me, but she has the mind of a perpetual teenager, always wanting to try new things, have sex with boys. She's a wild girl and without Chelsea, I knew she would leave, and if that happened, I would have to end her existence. Jane's much too dangerous to just let go. This is why I considered Chelsea's gift crucial. Her power play infuriated me. Chelsea wanted to see what I'd do and now's she's seen it."

"And what are you going to do now that Jane is helping the Joker."

Aro's shoulders slumped. "I'm hesitant to condemn her yet. I'd like to at least to read her mind first."

"What would you do if I left?"

"My dear Alice, I'm afraid, you are in no position to pull the power play that Chelsea did."

"So you'd just kill me."

"Yes," Aro said softly, leaning forward, brushing his finger over her cheek. "So please don't leave." His red eyes met hers. "I would be heartbroken to rip off your lovely head."

Alice shuddered. _He was so cold. _"Well I guess that's that. May I leave now?"

"You're not going to ask me the big question. The one you've been thinking about in the back of your mind since came here."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll rip off my head."

"I promise I won't. I'm not the monster you take me for. Go ahead, ask. You already know that I know what you're thinking. Do you honestly think I'd bring it up if I was afraid to answer?"

A part of Alice felt like she was being tricked, his words were a lie. But she decided to be brave, to take a leap of faith. "Did you kill your sister Didyme?"

"Yes," Aro said simply.

"And Marcus does not know."

"Oh he knows alright. Of course, he knows. That's what amazes me about the rumors that people spread. How could I keep something like that a secret for three thousand years?"

"So Marcus is okay with this?"

"Yes. Who do you think asked me to kill her?"

Alice was stunned. "But why."

"Because she was so destructive."

"How? Her gift made people happy."

Aro gave a harsh laugh. "Oh yes, her gift. _She made people_ _happy._ It sounds very innocuous, doesn't it? Like she was a cute, little bunny. But I ask you. What happens to your brain when you're happy? What happens chemically?"

"I don't know. You get an endorphin rush I guess."

Aro pointed his finger. "Exactly. And what does cocaine do to you."

Alice frowned, suddenly seeing his point. "You get a massive endorphin rush."

"Right again." He clapped his hands. "My sister's gift was like cocaine to the tenth power. It was mind boggling. I've never experienced anything like it, and I doubt I ever will again. One touch and you were in heaven. But of course, what comes up must come down, and you'd crash and burn in a nasty way. Thus making you immediately go to her again. Only the second time, your brain didn't have that many endorphins left, so it wasn't quite as pleasurable and after four or five times, you'd be so horribly depressed you couldn't think straight. Poor Marcus has never recovered from his relationship with Didyme. He has no endorphins left. My sister took away his ability to be happy."

"So Marcus asked you to kill her?"

"Not at first. I went to him. I told him that he had to take Didyme away or end her existence. Her presence was too destructive. We had people camped outside the palazzo, begging for just _one touch_."

"But weren't you desperate to keep Marcus because of his gift."

"His gift is not that valuable. Don't get me wrong. I love Marcus. He's a dear friend. But when I read people's minds, I have a pretty good idea how attached they are all on my own. His role is helpful, but not crucial. No I told him he had to leave with her or rip off her head."

"But he couldn't' do it."

"No, he loved her too much. It's always been the Volturi way that when your time is up, a beloved hand should end your existence. Caius has promised me that when I get too insensible to rule, he'll take my head, which I am grateful for. And yes, eventually I will remove Sulpicia's head. It's hard though, being that beloved hand. I loved Didyme. She was my baby sister. I raised her. If only she would have heeded my warning and stopped using her gift." Aro shook his head, placing his face in his hands.

For the first time, Alice realized what being the Volturi leader had cost him. He had to kill people he loved for the good of the coven. She suddenly felt quite sorry for him. Being a leader meant he had to be hard, but he was not without feeling. As a peace offering she gave him her hand.

Warmly he squeezed her palm, reading her mind again. "Ah thank you, my dear. It feels better not having you hate me. You may go now."

"Good night," she said softly, walking to the door.

Aro called out to her before she left. "We have a large caseload tomorrow, so I expect you to be in the hall around 7:00am."

"Yes Master," she said, closing the door.

Walking down the hall, Alice's mind was spinning. How odd he didn't catch her latest plan. Did strong emotions of good will confound him? If so, that was a good thing to know. Maybe that's what Sulpicia meant by **_devi baciarlo_**_. You have to kiss him._ Hadn't she sort of done that with her mind?

When she got back to her room, Celine was fast asleep, nestled in her bed. Alice softly said her name, waking her up, turning on the bathroom light.

"Oh you're back." Celine cried. "I'm so relieved."

"I have to take a shower," Alice told her, slipping out of her dirty clothes, throwing her filthy sandals in the trashcan. "I've got an idea though how to sneak you out of here. But it's not going to be easy. You're going to have to pretend that you're dead. I'm going to hide you in the catacombs. Do you think you can do that?"

Celine looked horrified, but she nodded. "I'll do whatever you say."

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**As you can probably tell, I definitely don't always stick to canon. But then what's the fun of writing fanfiction if you don't change it, right? :D**


	12. The Volturi Tarot

**Chapter 12**

Jasper had once teased Alice that she couldn't make a trip to Walmart without having a vision about it first. And to her annoyance, he was almost right. She hated flying blind. She wanted to know exactly what was going to happen and when. It was her crutch. Like all those girls at the poorhouse in Biloxi, dripping wax in the water to see who they'd marry.

Sitting on the bed crossed-legged, Alice listened to Celine take a shower, waiting for the water to stop. She had twenty minutes before she had to go to the Volturi Court and she wanted to use that time to trigger a vision, flashing a mini strobe light in front of her eyes, holding the beam for several minutes. She had never really understood why flashing lights helped the visions come, until now. She was triggering a seizure.

Yet forcing visions didn't always work. Sometimes she created false ones, her sub-conscious supplementing and extrapolating what she wanted to see. In fact, that's what she had done for Aru back when the Volturi came for Renesmee. Her worst fear, _Jasper dying, _coupled with her satisfactory revenge, _Aro getting his head ripped off. _While at the time, she had accepted that vision as true, she realized now after seeing Aro battle with the purebloods that some of it was fabricated. Aro was a lot more vicious and wily than she had first imagined, and he must have known it too. _Yet he still walked away. _Alice still didn't completely understand him.

But now she wanted a real vision. One that would show her the truth. One that showed her she would be victorious in sneaking Celine out of Volterra. With a couple more flashes, she got one. _A nightmare._ She was being buried alive, her fingers shredded off, her screams muffled in darkness. She let out a tiny yelp, her hands trembling. _This can't be happening_.

Immediately she tossed the strobe across the bed. _ I don't believe it. _

Now, trying to calm down, Alice rifled through her purse, pulling out a pack of Tarot cards. Jasper could never could understand why she bothered with them. "_Aren't your visions enough?" _But they weren't. Sometimes she needed clarity and reassurance. The cards had a way of linking everything she saw.

Laying down the first card, Alice turned it over. As usual she was the High Priestess, sometimes the Lady Pope, depending on the deck. The one with the sight. _**The Seer**_. But the next card on top of her was _**The Fool**_. _Figures_. She may be able to see the future, but she was still an idiot.

Her next card was her distant past. _**The Devil**_. Addiction. That was was always there, just over her shoulder.

Then her present. _**The Moon**_. Deception. That's definitely Aro. No matter how much he tries to be candid and upfront, she knew he had a secret agenda.

Her recent Past. _**The Knight of Cups**__._ Jasper, a true prince. Alice stared at the card, her throat dry.

Next she turned over her goal. _**The Star**__. _ That had to be Celine. If only she could save one person, just one, out of the thousands of humans the Volturi killed.

And then the final card, her destiny. _**The Ten of Swords**__. _Absolute destruction. Alice nearly dropped the deck. "Damn it. I won't let it happen."

"Did you say something?" Celine asked, stepping out of the bathroom, toweling her hair dry. She smelled like strawberry body wash.

"No, not really. I've got to go. It's almost time." Alice scooped up the cards and put them away. "When I get back, we'll go talk to Heidi. Just follow my lead. You've got enough to eat, right?"

"Yeah." Celine said, holding up her sandwiches.

"Good," Alice straightened her lace cuffs and put on her new Volturi coat. Long, black and threaded with gold, the coat had been specially fitted and tapered just for her, the inner lining made of rich burgundy brocade. Alice felt like an ancient relic in it, like a chess piece from the court of Louis XIV. "Leave it to Aro to come up with this antiquated outfit."

"You look very nice and sort of dangerous," Celine told her with a smile.

Alice shook her head. _The girl wanted to be a vampire so bad._ Alice would change her, if only Aro would let her. "Well thank you, but this definitely isn't me." Alice ran her hand along the coat's seam, straightening it, and then she kissed Celine on the cheek, before leaving out the door.

In the hall were a couple of Volturi guards in deep discussion waiting by the elevator, the dark haired Alfonse and the beautiful Pangari. Alice decided to take the stairs. She didn't want to intrude on the lovers and the less they knew about her the better.

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The first prisoner Felix and Santiago dragged into the hall was missing part of his fingers. He must have been scratching on the walls of the holding cells. Young and blond, he wore mascara and his eyes were squinting as if he hadn't seen the sun in days.

Aro stood up when he entered, bidding him a warm welcome.

Alice stood beside him, holding onto the arm of his chair, glancing over at Felix, whose expression was like stone.

"You remember Franz Mueller." Caius said, scowling. "Well this time, he created quite a scene in Oslo last week when he tore up a local drinking establishment and devoured two women in the restroom, leaving their bodies in one of the stalls for humans to find."

"What do you have to say for yourself, Franz? This is the second time you've been in our court," Aro said, offering his hand.

The blond just sneered at Aro, trying to spit on him.

Aro simply moved out of the way and Demetri rushed forward to cuff the prisoner on the side of the head.

Frowning, Aro turned to Alice. "Do you have any evidence that might alter my judgment?" he asked her.

Alice's eyes widened. "No, not really." She was surprised Aro wasn't going to read Mueller's mind, but then again, the prisoner refused it.

"Fine, rip off his head," Aro ordered, taking a seat.

Demetri nodded, moving forward, placing his arm around the prisoner's neck, while Felix and Santiago ripped off his arms. His body was ashes in a matter of minutes, Alfonse grabbing the broom to clean up the mess.

"Who's next?" Aro asked.

Alice shuddered. Was this the way her whole day was going to look like?

The next prisoners looked like a couple of potheads. Their red eyes just adding to the illusion, making them look hung-over. On a lark, they had decided to walk into a police station in Chicago in the middle of the night and consume all the employees. It was all caught on film. Alec even rolled a flat screen television from upstairs into the hall and played it for them.

Alice watched the video with horror. The clean-up for this fiasco had been huge. The Volturi had to kill numerous people just to keep it hidden. These guys were just asking to have their heads ripped off. The funny thing was though, they were kind of nice in a goofy sort of way, making jokes, trying to buddy up with Aro.

"We're very, very, very sorry," one of them said, holding out his hand. "I promise it won't ever happen again."

Aro read his mind and frowned. "Yes, you're right, it won't happen again." He nodded to both Felix and Demetri.

The guards descended upon them in a flash, the prisoners heads ripped off with their eyes still wide, their mouths open.

Alice didn't even have a chance to blink. "You didn't ask if I had anything to alter your judgment."

"I'm sorry, my dear," Aro told her. "Nothing you could have said would have saved them. They were much too stupid for immortality."

"I see," Alice choked, trying not to let the smell of charred ash and burnt hair make her sick. _This is so grim, Aro, how can you stand it?_

"Bring in next one," Aro said, turning to Marcus. "We're getting through this much quicker than I thought we would. That's a good sign."

"We're still going to be her until tomorrow," Marcus groaned.

The next prisoner made Aro sit up.

Arik-Boke was his name. Darkly handsome with long silky hair and black eyes, he stood like a prince, although he was only dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. Picked up for trespassing, spying, and consorting with the enemy, he stared at Aro with no fear. His body poised as if ready for battle.

Aro said nothing, just holding out his hand.

"You'll have to kill me," he said in perfect English.

"That can be arranged," Caius growled, standing up.

"What were you doing in our territory?" Aro asked.

"I have a message from Timur."

Aro frowned. "Please enlighten me."

"He wants your head."

"Is that so? He'll have to come here to get it."

To Alice's surprise, Arik-Boke triggered a vision. A vivid one. She was standing in the hall when thirty vampires dressed in cotton black deels and leather boots, stormed the castle, viciously attacking the Volturi. One vampire with a beard knocked her to the ground, making her skin crack, and then dragged her away by her hair, her kicks and punches meaningless to him.

Immediately she held out her hand to show Aro, clasping his palm.

After reading her mind, Aro turned to his guard. "Hold him down."

The prisoner put up a fight, a skirmish ensued in the hall. It took three guards to subdue Arik-Boke, pummeling him to the floor.

Aro went over and placed his palm on his forehead, his eyes glassing over. "Timur didn't like you much, did he, Arik? He sent you here and didn't tell you a thing. You're worthless."

With one quick yank, Aro pulled off his head, while the others removed his limbs, before efficiently setting the body on fire.

Alice balked, amazed at how easily they slaughtered offenders.

Aro came over to sit by Alice, turning to Caius. "Timur plans to invade. I think we're going to need some assistance."

Caius grimaced. "I take it then we'll have to show up at the Graf's next, full moon, feeding party after all."

"Yes," Aro said with a sigh. "They're always so unpleasant."

Caius glanced at Alice. "He'll be offended if you don't bring Alice. I'm sure he's heard we have a seer."

"Yes, it's very tiresome," Aro said, frowning. "You'll have to buy an evening gown, my dear."

"Feeding party?" Alice stiffened. "I'm not killing anybody."

Aro touched her shoulder. "You won't, I promise."

_Yeah, right_. She didn't believe him, but the look in his eye meant she knew she'd have to go to the party.

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Jane would never understand the Joker's attraction to dive bars and dumpy hotels. Looking around at _The Capri_ with its faded carpet and fake Rothko paintings, she couldn't believe the Health Inspectors hadn't shut the place down.

"So you own this place, Mr. J?" she asked.

"No, not _meee_," the Joker teased. "Mr. Coul Rophobia is the owner. Sir Coul used to be a carnival performer from Biloxi."*

"You do realize this place smells like burnt kitty litter."

"Yeah, all your killjoy, Volturi buddies torched my purebloods down in the tunnels. Now I'm going to have to go rob a bank so I can pay to have the place fumigated."

"Purebloods are nasty. I'm glad they're gone," Jane said, pulling out her compact, touching up her white make-up, making sure no sparkles showed through. She was starting to love her new look with her dark eyes and her long ponytails. So many people were scared of her. It was fun.

"Hey, purebloods make great pets," the Joker argued. "You can feed them your enemies. Play fetch with a femur. Make 'em skedaddle with a blow torch. I keep telling you, Harley. You have no imagination."

"Oh well, I figure I don't miss much."

Holding the elevator door with his foot, the Joker waved her inside, putting his special key into the round lock. "Let's go on up, and I'll introduce you to the guys."

Jane watched the numbers light up above the door, as the lift carried them to the penthouse suite on the top floor. It had been at least a day since the Joker had scattered her mind. By coming here, she almost wondered if he wanted to be found. "The Volturi will be able to track you here," she warned.

"Don't worry. I've got it covered. Timur's looking for us too, and I figure when he sees the Volturi, the last thing either one of them will be thinking about is little ole me. Although Aro seems to have backed off. I'm not quite sure why. What do you think he's planning?"

Jane shrugged and crossed her arms. "I don't know."

Abruptly, the Joker grabbed her chin and squeezed tight, slamming her back into the wall, the handrail digging into her back. "Look here, Harley, you're either mine or you're his. You can't be both. I'll let you think on that." With a quick shove, he pushed her away.

Jane almost lost her footing, but righted herself, trying to shrug it off, like nothing happened. It crushed her when he got angry at her, but she was not about to show it.

The elevator doors opened to a well-lit suite with threadbare blue carpet and floor-to-ceiling windows coated in a yellow film. Fan-shaped furniture decorated the seating area, while a big round bar in the center of the room was covered in dirty glasses filled with dried blood and ashtrays piled with cigarette butts.

The smell of nicotine almost made Jane's eyes water. "What a nice place you have."

"_I know_, isn't it? So nice and homey." The joker smirked.

Four scruffy vampires sat in the living room watching television. They all turned to the Joker when he stepped off the elevator.

"So what's you guys been doing, besides trashing my suite?" the Joker asked.

"The Volturi finally left."

"Yeah, somehow I managed to deduce that for myself, Clubsy." The joker eyed the squat, slack-jawed vampire with a look of menace. "But now you're gonna have to get off your fat ass, because I want to go empty out Boss Carbone's deposit boxes at the First National Bank of Gotham."

"Oh that's gonna piss him off," a burly vampire said, his blond hair so matted, it stuck straight up off his head.

"That's the plan, Needles." The Joker didn't even bother to look up, straightening his cuff. "By the way guys, I want to introduce you to my new girl, Harley Quinn."

The guys looked at her like she was an insect that needed to be stepped on.

Jane straightened her back and glared at them, her hand curled into a fist.

"We ain't gonna be bringing her along on the heist now, are we, boss?" Needles asked.

"Yeah, actually we are," the Joker said, turning to Jane. "Show Needles here what you can do."

"Certainly, Mr. J." Jane said, happy to oblige him. Focusing on the big blond vampire, she said only one word. "Pain."

Needles fell to the floor screaming, the other three vampires jumping away, afraid to touch him.

The Joker let out a big laugh. "From now on, my honey-bunny here is going to be in charge of discipline. Step out of line, and you'll have to deal with her."

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*****_**Coulrophobia**_** is the fear of clowns**

**Anyway just a note. I know I've made Aro kind of a control freak, manipulative bastard. Sorry about that. I can't help it. I look at someone who wields that much power as being a ruthless pragmatist that simply must win anyway he can. Aro would constantly have to play a dangerous game to stay on top. **

**In my story, I have not made the Volturi the absolute rulers of the entire vampire world. In fact, I can't imagine them being able to do this, simply because the world's so damn big and so diverse. Consequently, I look at the vampire world as being feudalistic, with treaties and vassals. The Graf (the German count who'll you'll meet in the next chapter) is one of the Volturi's vassals, like the Cullens, if that makes sense. **

**Aro is not completely despicable though. I do plan on having him have a character arc, if that helps. Of course, whether or not I'll be able to redeem him is left to be seen. Lol**

**I've been looking forward to my next chapter, which is **_**The Party.**_


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